This does need the context that you would communicate much more with your hive then just death and weddings. You need to build a relation with them. Ask permission to enter the hive, take good care of them, all that. And yes, there are people (like me) that still do it that way. And yes, I do think our bees / colonies recognise me and my wife as their keepers.
I think this is a good approach and the right attitude. I think that people tend to discount insects because they are small, simplistic, and ephemeral. Yet, social insects such as bees are part of a larger organism: the colony/hive. And collectively, that hive carries a lot of sentience, memory, and agency. We didn't coin the term hive mind for no reason!
So while this custom seems perhaps superstitious and frivolous, it carries actual layers of meaning and importance, because animal husbandry, even insect husbandry, is steeped richly in tradition and knowledge handed down across generations, for millennia, more than we can even comprehend.
Could you share more about why you think that, or your relationship with your bees please? How do they recognize you and behave to you? Do they have a group intelligence or do individuals know you?
I ask because I’d love to keep bees myself someday and the relationships people have with bees are something I don’t know well, or don’t understand, but am fascinated by. (The tradition linked for this thread is one I’m familiar with, for example — but what I don’t know is what makes people believe it. What is the experience of beekeeping that leads people to believe bees understand?) It’s one primary reason I’m keen to become a beekeeper, to experience and to learn. I’d love to hear whatever you have to say.
I keep bees and I like them, but there's a reason you wear a protective suit to work on them; they aren't all that keen to be friends. Tame bees will pretty much just ignore you, and that's probably the best you can hope for. But you do get to see what they're up to and watch them work which is pretty impressive. It's not particularly hard to get started keeping them if you want to give it a shot.
My wife and I are not bee keepers, but we have a hive nearby and our garden receives many bees during the day, particularly when looking for moisture during dry times. It is so beautiful watching how calm they are with my wife sharing the garden with them as she potters and they swirl.
i keep Asian honeybees on Lantau Island / Hong Kong - fully agree with you, there is so much more to it the more time one spends with bees. you will like this book a lot [Song of Increase]: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/28862364
