One British colony received special correspondence about Queen Elizabeth II's death last week – not from Buckingham Palace, but the Palace beekeeper.
The superstitious and somewhat cute tradition of 'telling the bees' of a death in the family has been part of rural British folklore for centuries.
It was no different for the death of Britain's longest reigning monarch.
How were the Queen's bees told?
Palace beekeeper, John Chapple, told Mail Online he travelled to Clarence House and Buckingham Palace on Friday to tell the seven bee hives.
"I'm at the hives now and it is traditional when someone dies that you go to the hives and say a little prayer and put a black ribbon on the hive," the 79-year-old said.
"I drape the hives with black ribbon with a bow."
Mr Chapple said he delivered the same message at both locations, in hushed tones.
"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," he said.
How old is this tradition?
Across the UK and Europe, many 18th and 19th century magazines, diary entries and paintings refer to the custom of telling the bees.
But the practice may have its origins in Celtic mythology, which held that bees were intermediaries between our world and the spirit world.
Why do they tell the bees?
Whether it is a birth, death or marriage, the bees were to be told about all important events in their keeper's lives.
It was believed beekeepers had strong connections with the bees, so they deserved to be treated like family, and mourn them when they died.
The following stanzas from the poem Telling the Bees, written in 1858 by American John Greenleaf Whittier, depict the important practice:
Before them, under the garden wall,
Forward and back
Went, drearily singing, the chore-girl small,
Draping each hive with a shred of black.
Trembling, I listened; the summer sun
Had the chill of snow;
For I knew she was telling the bees of one
Gone on the journey we all must go!
"Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
Mistress Mary is dead and gone!
What happens if the bees are not told?
In the event of a death, the bees were to be put into mourning.
This involved draping the hives in black cloth, leaving funeral food beside them and relaying news of the death quietly.
But if the bees were not informed, or put into mourning, it was believed they might stop producing honey, sting their next keeper, or die.
The Queen's Bees
Queen Elizabeth II was reportedly a bee enthusiast, and had a number of hives on the Palace grounds for many years.
According to the reports, The Royal Family chefs used the honey in their cooking and sold any leftovers to fundraise for charities.
