?? > The only problem I ever had was when the landowner passed away suddenly > and the heirs thought the apiary was part of his farm. Without the written > contract, I would have been out several hundred dollars worth of > equipment. I have had this problem before and was solved easily. My equipment is either Branded, stamped on the *inside* of the brood boxes or on the frames. Like in the days of the old west (which was much tamer than today in Missouri) I simply get the sheriff to go with me and I show the sheriff my brands on the equipment and he then asks the *heirs* to produce a *Bill of Sale* for Mr. Harrisons equipment. When the heirs can not produce the paper I get my bees and equipment. If you have a cow with my brand in your pasture you better have a Bill of sale or me saying you purchased the cow. We still have both rustlers of cattle and bee hives in Missouri. Bob H. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm