# Bait hives, bears and ferals



## BeePuncher (May 25, 2007)

Greetings all, happy to have finally signed up after reading myself silly here. I am in very thick bear country and as I walked the woods today looking up for ideal beetrees, down for morels and poison ivy it occurred to me as I observed the bear claw scratches on the beech trees that feral bees would have a hell of a time with the black bears...as would my bait hives - swarm season is upon us! I am going to set up bait hives for the first time, but wonder about the bears. Any experience or thoughts? Those bears have great sniffers and are great climbers, and I figure a bait hive with those smells would invite investigation of the worst sort. I imagine feral colonies must get torn up time to time? The ferals are definitely around this part of eastern Ontario, so the bears can't get them all, but after you see the things a bear can do going after ants or grubs under a log etc. I wonder about beetrees? 

I wish I would have paid attention to the ideas found here two years ago - a bee tree fell down in the corner of the field two Septembers ago: the tree split so the bees would have no chance for a Canadian winter...I could have hived them and harvested the contaminant free wax and honey! Even then without any natural cell education I noticed how small the bees and comb were! Dang, still kicking myself. Went back a week later and a bear ripped it to pieces, just a few bees flying around wondering what hit them again.

I have friends in logging around here who have on occasion asked me if I wanted wild hives when they cut down a soon to be revealed beetree...you see around here we are indoctrinated not to touch any swarm let alone ferals for fear of disease spreading. I hived a swarm from my own beeyard once and was told by a local beekeeper to make sure it came from my yard! Yeah right. It is quite shocking and an education to read here about the active hunting of ferals...I have of course put the word out with my logging friends! I don't really want to cut trees down or climb thirty feet up a tree either to catch them with a cone, brackets etc., but if someone else cuts the tree down anyway, might as well take them - what a resource! So much for the prevailing conventional wisdom...

Lastly, I have hooked up with the local animal control officer (at first reluctantly, now I can't wait for a call!) and picked up a few swarms starting last summer - I did keep them, one was combined with a smaller winter-beaten nuc and I got eight supers of comb honey by season's end - the last two being buckwheat. Done with starter strips so the wax was thin and delicate - don't care for comb foundation. Needless to say I felt very guilty keeping those swarms, as I know how disappointed my bee mentor would have been. I'll put an end to this very long post, sorry I strayed, I am so excited about this new dimension of beekeeping!


----------



## kc in wv (Feb 1, 2006)

I think finding feral colonies has lot of merit. Those bee's have survived without mans interference for some reason. My suggestion is to learn how to recognize disease and pests and treat accordingly. 

I have got a few colonies out of trees and one out of a house this spring. I suggest you get or make a bee vac. The one this spring went a lot easier after we started using a bee vac.


----------



## Ron Young (Aug 16, 2006)

With regard to bears, a wildlife officer told me that an electirc fence was great for keeping bears out of your hives. I am fortunate to not live in bear country, but I have had experience with bears and camping. 

My mentor has a great bee vac. It is simple, and uses your standard shop vac. He used a deep box, with plexi glass on the top. At one end, he used 1/8 inch hardware cloth to seperate the box into two portions, one being about 4/5 of the box. He drilled holes in for the suction hoses and ventilation, and cut a groove in the bottom for insertion of a thin piece of sheeting. Once the box is filled, it fits on a standard deep (one where your cut out brood is wired into frames) then the metal sheeting is removed. The bees then go into the box. 

Works great.


----------



## sierrabees (Jul 7, 2006)

In this area people have a system that seems to work to keep bears from climbing trees. Whatever tree they want to keep the bear off of they wrap with wire, either stranded fence wire or hog fencing works. They hold the wire off the tree with one to two inch thick wood battens and make sure the spacing if it is stranded wire is no more that six inches between wraps. They usually run this from the base to about six feet high. They claim that the bears get their claws caught under the wire when they try to climb and it makes them uncomfortable enough to cause them to find a better tree. I've never tried it but I know a lot of people with old fruit trees that claim it put a stop to the tree damage they used to have in the fall. I guess you could use this to protect your bait hives. I just accept a few losses now and then.


----------



## BeePuncher (May 25, 2007)

sierrabees said:


> In this area people have a system that seems to work to keep bears from climbing trees. Whatever tree they want to keep the bear off of they wrap with wire, either stranded fence wire or hog fencing works. They hold the wire off the tree with one to two inch thick wood battens and make sure the spacing if it is stranded wire is no more that six inches between wraps. They usually run this from the base to about six feet high. They claim that the bears get their claws caught under the wire when they try to climb and it makes them uncomfortable enough to cause them to find a better tree. I've never tried it but I know a lot of people with old fruit trees that claim it put a stop to the tree damage they used to have in the fall. I guess you could use this to protect your bait hives. I just accept a few losses now and then.


Doug, thank you for that tip, that's the kind of suggestion I was looking for - and it would work on my fruit trees too! I am going to set up about sixteen bait hives and being on a farm I have all kinds of wire around, so the work shouldn't be too much, especially if I think a little harder and choose trees that I will use in future years. Mentioning fruit trees, reminds me of the time I watched a bear topping one of the old homestead apple trees, big tree by today's standards and the bear right at the top shaking the bejesus out of it! Wrecked alot of the top too. Thank you for all the replies, bait hives going up on Sunday - up here June is our big swarm month; fruit bloom over, dearth is on, many days of rain and therefore time to plot rebellion...


----------

