# Bears?



## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

Big has little to do with keeping bears out, think effective and consistent. We are in Bear Central in the Fingerlakes region of NY thanks to ENCON relocating 19 problem bears to our area in the late '80's and early 1990's. 

We run the short electric fence posts, some fiberglass, some steel, which are basically rods with wings at the bottoms to hold the ground and the two piece screw plastic line holders which slide onto the rods and tighten. The fiberglass rods are murder on the hands once they get a couple of years old. We run two strands of wire - 0ne around 8 inches off the ground and the 2nd around 18 inches. We use both battery powered 10,000 volt chargers and the Solar 10,000 volt chargers. They must be well grounded and you are cheating yourself if you don't buy a tester. We have the Yellow Jackets as well which I've come to really like due to the fact you can throw a few D-cell batteries in the glove box for use if you come upon a dead battery and don't have a replacement. They'll last 2 months. Marine Deep Cycle is the way to go for the battery. The real key is to keep bacon. We use muslin soaked in bacon grease and tied on the wire, one on each side, and redipped once a month, you know, the can of bacon grease we all have in the frig. It's better to educate your bear rather than destroy him and have a newbie bear move in and start all over. They'll keep coming throughout the year, especially in the fall when most forage is gone so keep the fence hot and the grease fresh.

For the most part, we have very little problem at 7 yards, including the home equipment yard, which sees a bear daily in the spring and the fall.


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Since you are in our neck of the woods, you can distract the pests from our yards by not doing anything. Thanks! :lookout:

Seriously, we use a set up similar to the one described by Joel, and John would be happy to show you what works for us. 
We have NEVER had to resort to grease of any kind. It maybe makes you feel better and can't hurt but we have over 50 summer yards which manage just fine without bacon. The trick is to use ribbon wire instead of metal wire. Unlike the metal wire, the bear can more easily see the ribbon and will sniff it.... ZAPP! = educated bear. 

Grounding IS important and keeping the wires clear of brush is essential. Also make sure there are no climbable trees near the fence and that the fence is far enough away from the hives that the @#$% bear can't hook a colony with a claw and tip it over.

Being very familiar with your area I can say you are doing the smart thing putting a fence up. Any bee yard around here without one will get hit sooner or later.
Sheri


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## Da Yooper (Apr 13, 2004)

We are also considering a bear fence. My wife is in fact insisting upon one and the more I read the more I am convinced this will be the way to go. We have looked at some of the equipment and I was considering putting wire mesh fencing for the first three feet to keep the skunks out and then the electric wire above that. (also to keep our dogs from getting educated) Does that sound reasonable?

Shari. My in-laws live in Tomahawk. Perhaps next time we visit them we could take a ride to see your operation.

Thanks,
Fred


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Sure Fred, come on down, would love to visit with ya.
Sheri


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## Ishi (Sep 27, 2005)

http://www.patriotchargers.com/p30.htm
2 ground rods 
Chicken wire on the outside of the fence staked down and fastened to the grounds
Bacon or peanut butter in the ribbon fence 
The dogs only try it ONCE!
Put it up 2 weeks before you need it and let the bears try it out.
Good for problem bears they bring up from Camping areas.


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## BEES4U (Oct 10, 2007)

*Electric fence installation guide.*

The grounded chicken wire mat works!
Here is a URL with detailed instructions and drawings about how to and what does not work.

http://www.afence.com/Electric_Fence/how_to_elecfence/elecinstall.htm
Ernie


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## REWERT (Jan 30, 2009)

*Thanks*

Thanks everyone for all the great responses/information. That gives me some good places to begin and some more research to do. Sheri, what brand fencers do you use, size, number of tapes and spacing? I would like to go solar; I didn't see that Zareba (Yellow Jacket) had a solar version.


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## jeff123fish (Jul 3, 2007)

i use the zabera 3-mile solar fencer and so far no proplems with my reletivly small yards. As others have said don't let the bears discover whats inside the fence otherwise not amount of electricity will stop them.

-Jeff


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## mwjohnson (Nov 19, 2004)

I've wondered why I bait with bacon greased rags.
How is a bear gonna learn to associate honey with a good jolt in the nose, if he is smelling bacon when he gets zapped?

Maybe some hardware cloth, or sardine can, "burr comb holders"...hmmmm


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## Bizzybee (Jan 29, 2006)

I don't think the idea is to have the bear associate honey with a shock, but to instead have them associate the fence with a shock. What's inside the fence is of no consequence.


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## wmgysi (Feb 14, 2009)

*Bear friend*

I have a bear as my friend and I really think of her like that. I have electric fencing and its not a big unit. It was designed for cows when I bought it 20 or so years ago. What is improtant is the wire you use. There needs to be four lines going all around spaced evenly at the total hight of about 3 feet. and about a foot off the ground. You have to cut the grass underneath.

Now there is a little secret to tell, and this is not a joke. I hope I do not offend anybody with this experience, else plese forgive me
I have a five acre property and I do my liquid business at the corners or a good distance away around the bee yard quit often during the snowless time. The bear respects that. When I was away for 6 month on an overseas job and my wife had to look after it, it did not work. She had the fencer working (at least that is what she said) and the bear took a colony with everything. No trace except the stripped wires. Now she claims that she did her business at the designated spots, so either it works just for males or I am just a lucky one. In any case it does not hurt me to go out there with the extra peace of mind that comes with it. For the past two years after the incident I had no bears visiting the yard but all my neighbours have seen her with two cups.
Take care 




REWERT said:


> Has anyone had any experience with keeping bears out of a beeyard? It seems the preferred 'method' is electric fencer but lots of questions/disagreements on how big; most say 'as big as you can afford'. I've seen some recommendations for very large ones (fencers) but they are extreemly expensive. Anyone had luck with smaller sizes (what size??)working ok? Or any other novel, less expensive ways to detract them from my site? I know once the find a site they will always come back. Since this will be a brand new site this spring I'm wondering if something can be done to decrease the odds of them finding it to begin with. Thank you


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## cdraves (Nov 25, 2003)

I have had no luck keeping the bears out with just the electric fence, however what has worked is placing 4'x8' sheets of plywood with nails sticking upward around the hives.(we only have a few hives so the cost is not great).


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## No_Bivy (Nov 25, 2008)

heres one from our local clubs web site
http://www.wncbees.org/docs/Reference/BearFence.pdf


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## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

We did initially run our fences without bacon but repeatedly had bears get through. The boars in particular would walk into and right through it. Our area which is a heavily hilled and forested is rather think with bruins which does not help. Perhaps in less wild, bear ideal habitat areas your chances with unbaited bear fences would be higher.

We think of bacon grease as cheap insurance, it pretty much guarentees our lumbering friends will get a zap and get educated about what the wire post and little muslin flags are all about.


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## JPK (May 24, 2008)

REWERT said:


> Thanks everyone for all the great responses/information. That gives me some good places to begin and some more research to do. Sheri, what brand fencers do you use, size, number of tapes and spacing? I would like to go solar; I didn't see that Zareba (Yellow Jacket) had a solar version.


I would avoid Zareba like the plague. I had two DC controllers go bad in a 6 month period. 2 Different stores have indicated instances where Zareba has refused to honor their warranty on repeated occasions. They have a serious quality control issue.

Patriot has recieved a lot of good press recently and are a good price for the joule rating in DC setups.

If you want to step up from Patriot take a look at Twin Mtn

http://www.twinmountainfence.com/newproducts.php

I'm in the process of replacing mine with I believe the TB Series with is much more efficient with a battery charge.

I personally use marine batteries and separate solar panel chargers like the ones you can pick up at Tractor Supply. The advantage to a marine battery is that you can easily replace it with a fresh battery if you have an issue and throw an automobile style charger on it.....no fuss. I just keep a spare battery handy and periodically throw a guage on the thing to check the condition.

I personally use tape not wire because its easily seen by critters and periodically bait the thing with peanut butter.


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

_Sheri, what brand fencers do you use, size, number of tapes and spacing? I would like to go solar; I didn't see that Zareba (Yellow Jacket) had a solar version_
Sorry I didn't see this til today. We use all solar and do have some Zerebas, they _do_ make a solar, but JPK1NH is quite correct they don't last as long. We prefer Parmacs. We use 3 ribbons, evenly spaced, bottom one about 8 inches off the ground, top one about 2' up. As stated before, it is important to keep the grass mowed under the wire. 
Sheri


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## Allen Martens (Jan 13, 2007)

JohnK and Sheri said:


> We prefer Parmacs. We use 3 ribbons, evenly spaced, bottom one about 8 inches off the ground, top one about 2' up. As stated before, it is important to keep the grass mowed under the wire.


I've been very happy with the 12v Parmacs. Bear will rather try digging under the fence rather than go thru the fence, which is why it is important to have the bottom strand close to the ground.

A couple of applications of Round-up a year has been a lot less work than trying to keep the grass mowed under the fence.

We run five wires, starting at 6-8 inches off the ground and space then about 5 to 6 inches apart. With the amount of dew we get, grounding for the bears is not a problem. If we had dry nights I would run wires 1, 3, and 5 hot and ground wires 2 and 4.


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## Bear Creek Steve (Feb 18, 2009)

*Electric Bear Fence for Colorado Bears*

To REWERT, et all,

I live in bear country and before I got my first colony I built my bear fence. It consists of three 16'X4' cattle panels, one cut in half to make a 8'X16' yard. Four corners consist of heavy steel pipe with fiber optics conduit slid over as an insulator. The cattle panels are secured to the insulation and off the ground. The panels are wired together with bare copper wire and soldered. This is the "hot" side. 
I use a Paramak brand Magnum 12 volt solar fence charger which is expensive but of reliable quality to charge the system. (Shop for best $) 
CO is very arid so I put an 18" wide "skirt" of sheet metal on the ground 6" outside the cattle panels & spiked to the ground. Chicken wire as suggested above would work. The fence charger is grounded to an 8' copper clad ground rod & all of the "skirt" is bare copper wired/soldered together & tied to the ground rod. System has been tested by the bears & it works well. Look at http://www.kencove.com/fence/76_Bear+Fence_resource.php for info. Good luck & be safe. Next time ask me what I did with the bear in my kitchen.


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## dug_6238 (May 9, 2007)

Here's a pretty simple beginner setup:









If you don't do this, you end up with this:









We use Zarebas at both our sites. No destruction since we put them in place.


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

dug_6238 said:


> Here's a pretty simple beginner setup:


Nice setup Dug. I like to have the wires on the outside of the posts.


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## dug_6238 (May 9, 2007)

Michael Palmer said:


> Nice setup Dug. I like to have the wires on the outside of the posts.


Thanks, and that's a smarter idea, agreed 100%. They make a t-post insulator that sticks out about 3 inches from the post...perhaps this would allow you to have the posts turned outward and at a 45-dgree angle like you're saying but still have the wire far enough from the post that you don't have to worry about current arcing over to the t-post. :thumbsup:


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## Bear Creek Steve (Feb 18, 2009)

To the moderator: Yes that is the old post of mine that I could not locate. Thank you for locating it and posting it. Also, thank you for moderating here on BeeSource.

Cheers,
Steve


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