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Date: | Mon, 8 May 2000 09:14:52 +1200 |
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> ...This isn't sound biology.
My understanding of the reason that pans are banged, etc, has nothing to do
with biology at all, but more to do with law.
Back when many/most people were beekeepers, a good sized swarm in the air
had a certain potential value. But if it came from your own hive, you had
(under law of the time) some degree of ownership - but only so long as you
were actively trying to hive it!
The "tanging of the swarm" was the process of running after a swarm, banging
pot lids together - not to try to make the swarm alight (though one might
only hope!) but more to assert ongoing ownership. As long as you were
chasing the swarm, and people could tell you were by the racket you were
making, you still had a prior right to hive it when it landed...
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