Royal beekeeper has informed the Queen's bees that HM has died

There were a lot of people reacting to this on twitter like it was either "one of those wacky British hobbies" or "one of those weird rich people things they do when they conspire against the poor", but it's actually so historical in Europe it might've come from the PIE people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telling_the_bees

> ‘In all, I have been looking after bees 30-plus years. It started because of my wife’s love of honey.

> ‘So I bought her a book called Keeping Bees In The Back Garden. She read the book and said, “Well, it’s over to you now”. So I got the job of keeping bees in my home and it has just developed from that.

I think it's neat that a self-taught hobbyist beekeeper who learned the craft by reading a book could go on to become the royal beekeeper.

How did they take the news?

Made me chuckle. Funny custom, in a positive way.