diff --git a/charts/bee/Chart.yaml b/charts/bee/Chart.yaml
index 7b4f268..930ff43 100644
--- a/charts/bee/Chart.yaml
+++ b/charts/bee/Chart.yaml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 apiVersion: v1
 appVersion: latest
 name: bee
-version: 0.4.2
+version: 0.4.3
 description: Ethereum Swarm Bee Helm chart for Kubernetes
 home: https://swarm.ethereum.org
 icon: https://swarm-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/_images/swarm.png
diff --git a/charts/bee/templates/config.yaml b/charts/bee/templates/config.yaml
index bd05e4b..d8e436e 100644
--- a/charts/bee/templates/config.yaml
+++ b/charts/bee/templates/config.yaml
@@ -26,3 +26,4 @@ data:
     tracing-endpoint: {{ .Values.beeConfig.tracing_endpoint }}
     tracing-service-name: {{ .Values.beeConfig.tracing_service_name }}
     verbosity: {{ .Values.beeConfig.verbosity }}
+    welcome-message: {{ .Values.beeConfig.welcomeMessage }}
diff --git a/charts/bee/values.yaml b/charts/bee/values.yaml
index d8a94dc..391fd85 100644
--- a/charts/bee/values.yaml
+++ b/charts/bee/values.yaml
@@ -182,6 +182,8 @@ beeConfig:
   tracing_service_name: bee
   ## Log verbosity level 0=silent, 1=error, 2=warn, 3=info, 4=debug, 5=trace
   verbosity: 3
+  ## send a welcome message string during handshakes
+  welcomeMessage: "Welcome to the Swarm, you are Bee-ing connected!"
 
 ## if enabled, configures pods with defined libp2p keys
 ## libp2p keys are pregenerated examples and can be replaced with other values