Translation....The little ba****** were all over me and I wound up in emergency.
Medievil bees practiced fudalism.
There was a monarch...or queen, then serfs, or worker bees, that labored to support the monarch and the hive.
Worker bees did not own property back then either.
In modern times though, bees have moved away from the antiquated feudalism model, and most hives have a democratic republic in some form, although they often will keep a figurehead queen in a nod to tradition and their roots.
Did they find any elves in the trunk?