Bava Batra 80: Buying Doves, Honey and Trees - What is Still Owned by the Seller

A Mishna teaches that if one buys the chicks of another's dovecote, the first litter of chicks is held by the seller.  Usually that is a male and a female.  Similarly, if one buys the offspring of another's beehive, he gets the first three litters of bees, and the seller can sterilize the bees.  If he buys the honey, the seller retains a portion of that honey.  If one buys the rights to cut another's olive trees, the seller is given two branches. 

The Gemara first notes a contradiction: why would the seller retain the first two litters of chicks?  Is it because of the mother's urge to leave and be with her chicks?  Is the seller permitted to retain the first litter of future generations of doves?  Second, the Gemara wonders how one might sterilize the bees.  It is explained that when fed mustard or another sharp food, the bees will eat their own honey and then make honey instead of reproducing.  The bees that are born the following year belong to the seller.  Perhaps the seller takes alternating litters of bees.

The rabbis discuss honey further.  They note that honey is considered to be food only in its hive, but if it flows out it is like a drink and thus it can become tumah.  This is discussed in some detail.  Rabbi Eliezer claims that a beehive is like land.  We are permitted to write a prozbol if the borrower has a beehive, and one who takes honey on Shabbat brings the same offering as one who misappropriates land on Shabbat.  The Sages disagree.  Rabbi Elazar suggests that taking honey is like uprooting a forest.  Honey, like trees, are considered to be 'attached', thus is does not become tamei.

What about the olive trees?  A baraita teaches that whenever one buys a tree to cut down, s/he must leave a cutting of the tree for its seller so that the tree will regenerate.  Details about where to cut different trees are specified, including sycamore trees, reeds and vines, date trees and cedar trees.

The rabbis discuss whether or not one is permitted to cut an unpruned sycamore tree in Shemita, for this would promote its growth.  The Gemara then discusses different trees and which will grow back from what types of pruning.  It ends with a list of ten different cedar trees whose stumps do not grow back after being cut.