Queen Elizabeth II’s royal beekeeper has broken news to the hives that their Queen has passed away.
On September 9 - one day after Buckingham Palace announced that Her Majesty died peacefully in Balmoral, Scotland - 79-year-old John Chapple, the official Palace beekeeper, carried out a centuries-long tradition.
Chapple traveled to Buckingham Palace and Clarence House to tell the millions of bees that Queen Elizabeth II had died.
As part of the bizarre formality, Chapple placed black ribbon bowties on the hives and whispered to them that their new master is now King Charles III.
"You knock on each hive and say, 'The mistress is dead, but don’t you go. Your master will be a good master to you'," Chapple revealed to the Daily Mail.
Check out the pictures below:Chapple continued to explain the ritual, saying: "The person who has died is the master or mistress of the hives, someone important in the family who dies and you don’t get any more important than the Queen, do you?"
According to JSTOR Daily, "Telling the Bees" is a piece of folklore that came from the 18th and 19th centuries. Back then, beekeepers would knock on the hives and sing to their bees when their master had a child, got married, or someone in the household had left.
If their master dies, the beekeeper would be expected to sing to the bees, according to historians, while others opt to whisper instead.
The late queen had two beehives in Clarence House, while Buckingham Palace has five. Each hive has approximately 20,000 bees - however, this number continuously changes throughout the year.
The royal beekeeper also revealed that he has kept his job for 15 years and told the outlet that he secured it without submitting an application.
"I got an email from the head gardener here at Buckingham Palace to come here and talk about bees," Chapple explained. "I thought they had a problem with bees, but it turned out they wanted to keep bees so henceforth I look after the bees here."
He expressed that it had been a "wonderful privilege" to care for the bees under Her Majesty's reign, and said that he wishes to continue in his role as her eldest son ascends to the throne.
"I hope they still want to keep the bees on their premises," Chapple said. "They might say, take them away but I don’t think that will [be] happening though really you do never know. It’s up to the new tenant of Buckingham Palace."
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