John Mahaffie

This entry is post 14 of 24 in the ongoing series Landing Board beekeeping history posts

As swarm season in the Northern hemisphere continues, it seems timely to look in on tanging.

Tanging means making loud noises to induce a honey bee swarm to return or settle on a bush or similar for recovery. If there’s any efficacy of doing this, it may be in that sometimes the bees think there is a thunder storm arriving and want to return to the hive because of that.

The practice or belief is ancient. Pliny the Elder (Roman naturalist and military general of the first century CE) wrote:

BEES JOY in the clapping of hands, and ringing of brasen basons: at the sound thereof they will assemble and come together.¹⁾Philemon Holland, translator (1601): C. Plinius Secundus The Historie of the World. Book XI. (Pages 310-356)

A woman tanging (banging a pot to get her bees to return or settle)²⁾William Hetherington Harris, *The Honey-bee: Its Nature, Homes and Products*, London: The Religious Tract Society, 1884, , p. 174.

It’s not clear if too many people still practice tanging, but modern beekeepers might do so, but not tell anyone.

References[+]

References
↑1	Philemon Holland, translator (1601): C. Plinius Secundus The Historie of the World. Book XI. (Pages 310-356
↑2	William Hetherington Harris, The Honey-bee: Its Nature, Homes and Products, London: The Religious Tract Society, 1884, , p. 174.

It is swarm season, probably in most of the Northern temperate climate, as I write this.

Ever-tinkering and experimenting beekeepers have long tried to find ways to prevent, slow, and divert honey bee swarms. Nineteenth century approaches included leading the exiting swarm directly into another set of equipment.

The device below claimed to do this via a perforated metal tunnel:

When once in place, the bee-master can go about his business, whether fifty miles away or near the apiary; and he can rest assured that, should the bees swarm during his absence, they will be self-hived, and all settled to work upon his return.¹⁾Henry Alley, “Novel Self-Hiving Arrangement for Bees,” American Bee Journal, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, January 11, 1890.

A swarm re-directing device from 1890²⁾Henry Alley, “Novel Self-Hiving Arrangement for Bees,” American Bee Journal, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, January 11, 1890.

Other devices aimed to catch and contain the swarm in the apiary, to then make it easy to put the bees and their queen into another set of equipment.

A correspondent wrote to Gleanings in Bee Culture in 1904 to show his home-made device to stop swarms:

Another swarm-catching device from the early 1900s³⁾Letter to the editor from J. M. Mack, San Diego, California, *Gleanings in Bee Culture*, July 15, 1904, p. 706.

As ever, dealing with swarms is the plight of the beekeeper. Newfangled approaches will likely continue to emerge as we go.

References[+]

The folk practice of tanging to get swarms to return (ancient and continuing?)

Swarm prevention in the past (19th Century beekeeping)