In his studying, Jake had learned all kinds of things about bees. He’d come across many interesting and archaic traditions in his reading—like if you got married, you had to introduce the bride to the hives. And if a beekeeper died, his friends had to tell the bees. One thing that really struck him was this idea of tending to the bees “absent of vice.” He read that they didn’t like the smell of onions or garlic. Beekeepers were urged not be “rude or drunken.” He’d jotted down, “Tend the hives with cleanliness and sobriety.”
