Swarm: Hold the Pots and Pans

First, about the birds and the bees, mostly the bees. Every year, the natural process of procreation results in the beekeeping headache, opportunity and delight of swarming. During a swarm up to half of a hive flies off to make a new colony elsewhere, often followed at pace by an infuriated beekeeper hoping to catch them. At the same time, every year, without fail, an argument will breakout between beekeepers over whether it is possible to charm said swarm pf bees out of the sky by banging together pots, pans, old tools, dustbin lids and basically anything made of metal that will make a satisfying note when struck. This contentious process is called “tanging” and has been around in the UK long enough to have made it onto the Mayflower to the colonies, since it surfaces in US beekeeping circles too!

Since you asked, I’ll tell you. I think that Tanging is a myth, supported by anecdotal evidence, wrapped up in a misunderstanding of how swarms work, with a bit of fairly obvious psychology thrown in and a long miss-remembering of something very old indeed added on top. There is, as if I really need to point this out, no scientific evidence to support the claim that tanging works and more experienced beekeepers than me have been debunking it in print for a century and a half. But, let’s consider the case for the defence? Proponents of Tanging are convinced that bees are able to hear the noise made by clanking metal, sometimes this is rationalised as mimicking the sound of thunder and can be induced to lose altitude and settle for collection. It’s a pretty simple belief that has been around for centuries and has taken on the status of country lore on two continents. Proponents will even tell you that they’ve seen it happen themselves which raises the always awkward issue of how to challenge evidence free belief systems or magic as it might also be called.

The first place to start is probably with why people might want to chase after and control a swarm in it’s bid for freedom. Obviously, lost bees reduce honey production and cost money for beekeepers, but there is also  common law to consider. The convention goes that as long as you can keep your escaping swarm in line of site, its effectively still yours. For centuries, back as far as the late Dark Ages perhaps, beekeepers followed swarms clanking metal. So far so familiar, but what has been forgotten here, or lost in translation, is that English (and by imposition Welsh) Common Law inherited aspects of older Roman Law which required Roman honey farmers (their employees and slaves, presumably,) to retain ownership of swarms by following behind them striking metal bars in warning and ownership until the swarm could be reclaimed. These Roman beekeepers were also expected to chant the name of the owner of the hives too. “These bees are the property of Markus Antonius Apis”, or some such. It seems that the process has been quite well remembered actually and then it got romanticised and mythologised as “Tanging” and the orginal obligation has been forgotten?

So, if the motivation for “Tanging” may have changed, how feasible are the other claims. Can bees hear the ring of a metal strike, for example? Possibly,  but (despite certain specialised receptors in their antenna having recently been found to have the capacity to weakly register sound) they don’t have ears as such. In reality most of a bee’s ‘hearing’ capacity comes via things called subgenual organs in their legs, designed to pick up vibrations through wax comb rather than air. As far as being surprised by a thunder sound into changing their plans, well, since they are acutely aware of electromagnetic build-up prior to thunder storms that seems very unlikely indeed.

Why do adherents of “Tanging” feel so strongly that they may have seen it work? Well, psychology maybe. If you’ve been told to expect something to happen, you carry out the required ritual and something similar to the result you expect does happens, you think you did it. It’s called ‘magical thinking’ in psychology, we all do it, to some extent. When you realise that swarms don’t travel very far really and that swarming has two parts, a bivouac phase when scouts are sent out and a final phase when the swarm plumps on a forever home it begins to make sense that a beekeeper might see this and write themselves in to the story. If you “Tang” and the swarm settles to bivouac, then  you feel vindicated and you put the swarm in a suitable box. If you “Tang” and an already bivouaced swarm heads for your swarm trap, then you feel vindicated and move your trap to an apiary. In truth, the bees, as usual, are totally ignoring us and just responding to deeper instincts. As long as people who Tang are wearing ear protectors, no harm is being done, but then, nothing of significance either.