Sound as a repellent

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roche

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Has anyone heard of using sound as a deterrent against a swarm moving into an inconvenient location? Playing loud music next to an entrance they are looking at moving into?
 
More of the back story: I got asked to have a look at a swarm. Apparently it had turned up late-ish the previous day. The lady had heard that loud music might deter the bees. So she rigged some speakers around the dis-used pipe opening and let rip. When I turned up the next morning, there were a few stragglers around, but no sign of the swarm.
 
Probably anecdotal, they may have found a suitable place, but it was too late to do anything about it. Then moved on in the morning. The only one I've heard of, is banging saucepans to down a swarm.
 
Has anyone heard of using sound as a deterrent against a swarm moving into an inconvenient location? Playing loud music next to an entrance they are looking at moving into?

Give them some AC/DC it might not work on the bees but at least it's something to listen to. :)
 
The only one I've heard of, is banging saucepans to down a swarm.

Old story that never made much sense to me. Reckon the saucepan banging was to alert the village or the neighbours that a swarm was out, and that the subsequent chain of messages would get the news to the beekeeper.
 
Would it work for ex-wife?
 
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Jeff states in his intro: Now, I will admit, this swarm was already hanging on a tree, and I did scope a bunch of them up with the bucket you see in the video, and dropped them in the box, but then main bunch took off, and I called them back using this method.

Dropped a bucket of bees in the box? If the queen was in the box the swarm would return. So far, nothing tells me that banging the crowbar attracted or held the swarm.
 
I've read that the banging of saucepans was to make everyone aware that the swarm was yours and to keep your claim if it went onto a neighbour's land. I've also read it is to imitate a thunderstorm and that will bring the swarm down.
 
I've read that the banging of saucepans was to make everyone aware that the swarm was yours and to keep your claim if it went onto a neighbour's land.
This was the tradition in North Wales. An old chap (not a keeper) told me about seeing it in his childhood, so probably between the wars.
 
Interesting. I have read in a few books that in the olden days they did bang things to attract swarms. One book compared this to riot police banging their shields with battens to try and subdue the rioting crowd.

Anthropomorphic story repeated without basis: humans may interpret sound as a threat and modify their behaviour, but there's no reason at all to presume that an insect will respond similarly.
 
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This was the tradition in North Wales. An old chap (not a keeper) told me about seeing it in his childhood, so probably between the wars.

This makes much more sense: banging communicated effectively in small and close-knit communities before telephones were in common use; similarly, American-Indian used smoke signals for distant communication.
 
Well I don't know about tanging, but I captured a swarm from one of my hives last month by just standing in the middle of my garden with my hand in the air.

Granted, I was holding the queen in a clip (she was clipped and I found her on the ground in front of the hive). A cluster stared to form on my hand which I then set down on the top bars of an open nuc. 15 minutes later the swarm was in the box.
 
Well I don't know about tanging, but I captured a swarm from one of my hives last month by just standing in the middle of my garden with my hand in the air.

Granted, I was holding the queen in a clip (she was clipped and I found her on the ground in front of the hive). A cluster stared to form on my hand which I then set down on the top bars of an open nuc. 15 minutes later the swarm was in the box.

Great thing to impress beginners with
I hope you took a video!
 

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