Calling Down a Swarm

[Erichalfbee]

You’ve all missed the point
Bees are the magic
Without them none of your Hocus Pocus works

 

[Beefriendly]

Judging by the number of Crystal retailers springing up seems honey is in short supply.
PM me if you need any bee produce, you will eventually find crystals appearing in it.

 

[Popparand]

Try a piece of flexible tube around a yard long and two inches diameter... open at both ends.
Tune to note A when whirled around.

Possibly in the realms of the paranormal... standing on the intersection of leylines may help.

On the day before a full moon when Sirius is rising in the East and Jupiter is being eclipsed by Mars......

well it works for me!

Chons da

When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter elides with Mars, shurely?

 

[Popparand]

Back on topic.
I was given the Collins Beekeeper's Bible when I first started.
The first chapter is full of folklore.
It does mention Tanging.
Used when the bees were about to swarm to encourage them to settle so they could be rehoused in an empty skep.
The banging and crashing also alerted the neighbours that the bees were about to swarm!
There's a bit on Telling the Bees too.
I talk to my bees too, but this was the custom of telling them news of importance, particularly that the beekeeper had died.
To encourage the bees to stay and not abscond, you were to tap the hive with a large key and tell them the news!

How can a beekeeper talk to the bees if he is dead?

 

[For want of a better word]

When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter elides with Mars, shurely?

THAT depends upon if you have been drinking carrot juice or O neg.. shirley?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

How can a beekeeper talk to the bees if he is dead?

As someone who's godfather was an undertaker I can assure you that, especially in these days of central heating, after a few days the deceased are certainly buzzin'

 

[birdsandbees]

well that was an enjoyable read through!

after being duped into believing that Tanging may actually work via BookFace and YouTube I actually tried it this year.
The swarm was about 40 feet up in a tree, no hope of getting to them so duly trotted back to my truck and came back with two large ring spanners, after a few minutes of looking like a nut job and probably making anyone within a half mile radius wonder what the noise was, they moved! all of them took to the air and for a moment the open Nuc seemed to be drawing them in, wow! could it actually be real?
Nope! probably a total coincidence as they then settled lower down in the hedge another 100 yards away but still out of reach, I tried again but they just laughed at me! I got them in the end but IMO Tanging does not charm the bees from the trees.

There's a video of Jeff Horchoff on YouTube supposedly Tanging a swarm into an open hive using a crow bar, at the very start of the video there are already bees checking out the box so I very much doubt the performance had anything to do with them relocating.

 

[For want of a better word]

Well... so much for tanging down a swarm.... but a farmer friend an ex beekeeper said he would sometimes take a shot at a swarm with his over and under cannon!

Said sometimes they would move... or fall in a big clump!!

Chons da