# Appalachian Lore



## scrapiron (Jul 23, 2011)

Over the last few years I have become very interested in nature as a whole. The neighbors worry/wonder whats next! I put up a Greenhouse, started a Tilapia farm, chickens, goats, bees, 14 fruit trees, more gardens than grass, ect... all on an acre. One of my ventures is wine and moonshine making. While out browsing through a local Salvation Army resale store I found a interesting book. _More Than Moonshine_ by Sidney Saylor Farr.

I purchased the book and hurried home to get reading. Much to my suprise there was a short chapter _Coursing the wild honeybees_ It talks about how they actually tracked bees from their watering hole to the tree where they lived, because bees use the nearest source of water. Bee Gums were the norm for keeping bees. 

The setup is a boy learning from his father. The boy was thinking about how his dad knew the bees were about to swarm, and asked about it....

_"You just have to watch for the signs. Nothing ever happened in nature without a sign being given" Dad takes me over to a bee gum. "Look at the pattern of bees outside on the front." Looking closely, I could see that the bees were clinging to the outside in the shape of a horseshoe. Dad said the bees would swarm within 3 days if nothing was done to relieve the conjestion of the bees inside._ 

Then it talks about how they wait for the swarm (since you cant add a super on a gum!) and all the kids join in to help settle the swarm. Great fun came in beating wooden spoons against dishpans and buckets while dad rang a cowbell kept for that purpose.


I have heard of "tanging" to settle bees. I totally believe in it, because I have seen it done. This guy used windchimes made of pipe, and rang them with a small piece of rebar. It worked, I witnessed it. Has anyone ever heard of the horseshoe pattern? The exits are way different on modern hives, but it could still be noteworthy.
Sorry so long. Hope everyone enjoyed this bit of lore, and I look forward to responses.


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## birdman1 (Oct 3, 2011)

Yes bangging on pots ringing bells and chimes are all methods of getting a swarmto settle My reasoning is that the loud noise interfears with the comunication between the queen and her workers so the settle to get reorganized .bees when gathering water go straight back to the hive so you know the direction to follow so the term a bee line getting honey from a tree usally ment killing the bees in the prosess .a swarm in may is worth a stack of hay but a swarm in july ain,t worth a fly .I love keeping bees and every one else loves my honey


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## txplowgirl (Oct 15, 2007)

I bet you would love the Foxfire books. All about Apalachin lore and stories and old ways of doing things. I love them.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I have a steel fence post driver I clank on with a stick of wood or hammer, what ever is handy when I see a swarm. Kare likes the bottom of a plastiac 5 gallon pail and a stick she keeps inside of it for the occation.


Lots of reasons given why it works, some say it is because it some times sounds like thunder so they land and cluster tight to protect the queen.

While I love the fox fire books published by high school students as co authours i'm Not impressed by the ones by college students. The one that touches on bee keeping does just that *TOUCHES *on it, couple pages at best.

 Al


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## BjornBee (Jan 17, 2011)

Maybe it's just me, but I bet somewhere near 95% of swarms that happen in my own yards, settle within eyesight of the parent colony. And I get that 95% success rate without pounding on pots and pans. Research has found that swarms normally land and regroup once outside the hive. Tanging or no tanging.

I can't honestly say about those swarms that are in transition from the first cluster location and are moving to another transition location or to the new home. Just don't have much opportunity for those situations.

I think those beekeepers who are standing in their own beeyards and see a swarming event unfold, they have about the same success rate of a swarm settling whether one tangs or not. I think it proves nothing when a beekeeper says they tanged 4 times and all four times they settled. they probably were going to anyways.

Tanging is fun for the kids and sounds good on the surface. But swarms almost always settle within eyesight of the parent colony. 

As a side note.....I have located a good number of feral colonies after going out on a swarm after being called. If you understand that swarms will normally settle within eyesight of the parent colony, or at least within something like 100 yards, you can find feral colonies by looking. There is usually a trail of bees going on between the swarm and hive that it came from. After they move to a second location, this stops.

Bees are not stupid. They know when a storm is approaching due to temperature change, pressure change, etc. They normally do not issue a swarm of days of bad weather. So for them to have a sunny day, then issue a swarm, and suddenly be surprised of a thunderstorm being simulated by tanging, is a bit of a stretch to me.

And swarms communicate mostly by pheromones. So I personally do not think tanging on pots interfers with communication to the point that this throws them off and they need to land. I've seem them go right over 6 lane highways with tractors blasting by and they seem to communicate just fine.

Beekeeping is full of lore, urban legend, etc. Some of it is fun for the kids. But in the end, it means little.


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## scrapiron (Jul 23, 2011)

So no one has heard of the horseshoe pattern on the front of the hive, within 3 days of a swarm?


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## ChristopherReed (Jan 21, 2011)

scrapiron said:


> (since you cant add a super on a gum!) and all the kids join in to help settle the swarm. Great fun came in beating wooden spoons against dishpans and buckets while dad rang a cowbell kept for that purpose.


You can, there are still some people in east TN that only keep bees in gums, since you have to have movable frames for inspection, you have to be able to access the hive. Its an old way of doing it for sure, but.. people still do it.


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## brierpatch1974 (Sep 28, 2005)

I still go out each year tracking bees to their hives in the woods. You can track them from their water source or you can set hout some sugar water and when they find that follow them from there. Just remember the closest source doesn't always mean they are close by. The longest we ever went was about 6 miles. We use to keep the bees we found and they always did better for us than ones we bought.


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## Patrick (Sep 13, 2011)

> Beekeeping is full of lore, urban legend, etc. Some of it is fun for the kids. But in the end, it means little.


I agree. That stuff is fun to read sometimes for entertainment. Sometimes it's just downright ridiculous. If all of these old timey practices were any good, they would still be in use, or more likely have just evolved into modern practices. The others that people dredge up, like some long lost secret, are for the movies or for people who are fooling themselves. There is nothing new under the sun. Who wouldn't like to have a yard full of quaint bee skeps, a-la Winney the Poo? But there is a reason why they are no longer in use.


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