Letters to the Editor – September 2024

Responsibility for lost swarms

In response to the question raised by Nick Maggiore in the August issue [Letters to the Editor: “Who is responsible for lost swarms?”], I’d refer you to read “The Law of Bees” [North Carolina Law Review, 1926] for some legal perspective. I would propose that the answer is better reached by asking, “Who owns a swarm”? Legal ownership resides with the owner upon whose property the swarm has landed, with the exception of watched and tracked swarms by the original hive owner. So in the instance of a “lost” swarm (not actively tracked by the parent colony owner) the swarm is deemed feral and ownership along with responsibility transfers onto the landing property owner.

UNC Law Library: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1115&context=nclr#:~:text=The%20principle%2C%20as%20laid%20down,is%20that%20this%20is%20considered

Mike Champlin
Blind Bee Honey
Hope, Indiana