---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: Sid Pullinger, [log in to unmask]
TO: Bee-l, INTERNET:[log in to unmask]
DATE: 10/05/97 10:24
RE: : Bees and Noise
:
This thread, about bees responding to clanging a metal object, came on the
net several months ago. In response to a query I offered the following
letter. At the risk of boring those who have read it before I offer it to
the newcomers as the best I can do to help settle the question.
It is strange how these stories persist. What he saw was pure coincidence.
99% of swarms settle near from where they came prior to
going off to their chosen home. I think that human noise, shouting and
banging of pans, has no effect on bees at all. However, it
appears that many in the past thought so and the idea has persisted down
the centuries. Village beekeeping was popular in the old
days in England and, as he states later, banging on a pan could be a
signal to other beekeepers, "This is my swarm." Hives were
small and swarming and casting took place every year.
I decided to see what references I could find to "tanging", as it is
called, in a few old books.
Quoting from a book by T B Miner, an American beekeeper, published in 1846,
we find "The custom of jingling of bells and rattling of tin
pans originated from the cottagers of Europe, residing in communities
making a practice of ringing bells or thumping on tin pans when
a swarm issued so as to know who the owner was: since swarms issuing from
the premises of one cottager would frequently cluster
on the grounds of another."
And from a book by A Neighbour, well known English beekeeper and appliance
maker, writing in 1866, "In many country districts it is a
time-honoured custom for the good folks of the village to commence on such
occasions a terrible noise of tanging and ringing with
frying pan and key. This is done with the absurd notion that the bees are
charmed with the clangorous din and by it may be induced to
settle as near as possible to the source of such sweet sounds. This is,
however, quite a mistake. The practice of ringing was originally
adopted for a different and far more sensible object ---- viz., for the
purpose of giving notice that a swarm had issued forth, and that the
owner was anxious to claim the right of following, even though it should
alight on a neighbour's premises. It would be curious to trace
how this ancient ceremony has thus got corrupted from the original design."
And an explanation from Root's A B C of Bee Culture, 1905. "In the old
fashioned boxhive days, the ringing of bells and the tanging of tin
pans was considered very essential in causing a swarm to alight. These
old-timers probably did not know that the bees would cluster
before going off, noise or no noise.. Because they settled on some tree
after each tanging, such tanging was supposed to be essential.
At one time this old custom was supposed to be a relic of an old
superstition: but it is now known that one of the old kings of England
once issued an edict that , whenever a swarm came forth, the owner of it
was to ring bells or drum on tin pans to give notice that his
bees were out, thus preventing anyone else from claiming them. What was
done in an obedience to an old law, for an entirely different
purpose, has crept down through the generations until the old significance
is lost."
So much for recent history.
Going further back in time I found in Dr. Crane's book The Archaeloogy of
Beekeeping an illustration of an etching on a silver goblet now
in London and made in 1683. It clearly depicts a beekeeper tanging as the
swarm issues from the hive, suggesting that the noise is for
the bees and not neighbours. Finally, in H M Fraser's book Beekeeping in
Antiquity, I found more references from the first centuries BC
and AD which indicated that the belief existed that tanging brought the
bees down.
No doubt there are many more references, some even earlier, if one has the
time and books to search. Clearly the origin of tanging lies
in the dim and distant past. Sid P.
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