Legal Term: BEE

Definition: The name of a well known insect.

2. Bees are considered ferae naturae while unreclaimed, and they are not more subjects of property while in their natural state, than the birds which have their nests on the tree of an individual. 3 Binn. R. 546 5 Sm. & Marsh. 333. This agrees with the Roman law. Inst. 2 1, 14, Dig. 41, 1, 5, 2, 7 Johns. Rep. 16, 2 Bl. Com. 392 Bro. Ab. Propertie, 37, Coop. Justin. 458.

3. In New York it has been decided that bees in a tree belong, to the owner of the soil, while unreclaimed. When they have been reclaimed, and the owner can identify them, they belong to him, and not to the owner of the soil. 15 Wend. R. 550. See 1 Cowen, R. 243.

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