# Bear Damage!



## Ravenseye (Apr 2, 2006)

Ugly stuff. Couple more weeks and they should be sleeping for the winter. Tough luck for sure. Hopefully, you'll be able to salvage most of it.


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## France (Apr 5, 2007)

Not a pretty picture...

I keep my bees in total wilderness, at my summer home. Nobody around for miles, but bears and more bears. They test my fence at least once a day!
They just walk by and you can see the hairs on their backs standing on ends as they go by pretending that nothing is there. . . .
More stubborn ones sure try to get through quite often and is not pretty when it hits them.

I DO NOT bait the fence ! As I have not intention to attract them to the wires! 
When they deal with fence and it hits them - they know what did it!
But when they take a snack off a fence, they get a nasty surprise and are bound to go ahead - and not back as they always do when investigating bare wires. . . . . .
Some even try to dig under but until now they changed their minds when it nails them...

Deer and moose too, walk all over the place and til now newer touched the wires. Wild animals know very well that the wires are electrified?!
Don't ask me how? I wish our dog would learn from them, heeee. . . .

Of course a barbed wire is a must - to part the hair! 
Chicken wire on the ground, for them to stand on! You want to get them good - or forget it!

Regards,
France

They sure seem to wait for something to go wrong with the fence and than it will happen. . . ? !


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## the kid (Nov 26, 2006)

France I have to ask ,, are your fence battery ??? as you said in the wilderness... 
just woundering if the battery one has the bite to keep bear away ??
the kid


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## dcross (Jan 20, 2003)

France said:


> Wild animals know very well that the wires are electrified?!
> Don't ask me how? I wish our dog would learn from them, heeee. . . .
> 
> They sure seem to wait for something to go wrong with the fence and than it will happen. . . ? !


Cows do both of those as well. They act like they don't even know the fence is there, but the second it's off they all start nosing at it.


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## berkshire bee (Jan 28, 2007)

Mark, Sorry for your loss. I heard just this morning that one of our club members here in western Mass just got hit and lost 8 hives. I haven't spoken to him yet so I don't know the details, but he's always been good about having a good fence since he's experienced bears in the past. It's an especially tough time to get hit. You worked hard all summer to get them to this point, and with the killing cold, the bees all end up dead. Makes you wanna cry.


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## Tillie (Apr 26, 2006)

what a sad set of pictures.....gosh, I'm sorry.

I've seen electric fences around all the beehives I know about in the N Georgia mountains. I'm thinking of putting a couple of hives up there and I will definitely invest in a fence - I think they make some that are solar powered battery cell driven so that you don't have to remember to plug it in....I think they are not cheap - $119 for the charger before you buy the fence, but looking at all that damage.......

Linda T in Atlanta


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## France (Apr 5, 2007)

the kid said:


> France I have to ask ,, are your fence battery ??? as you said in the wilderness...
> just wondering if the battery one has the bite to keep bear away ??
> the kid



Yes I use Marine type battery. Not car, marine... (deep-cycle)
The battery is not what gives the wallop - it is the 'fencer' that converts it to 5, 10 0r 15,000 volt wallop! 
Solar fences usually use only an 6 volt jelly-type battery.
Portable, net type bear fences, used by outdoorsmen in bear country, use only two 1.5 volt or a 9 volt battery...

If you plan to buy a fencer? Get one that is low-impending and good for a 15 to 30 mile fence. Such a fence can be touching brush and grass and wont kill the battery so soon. Of course, battery has to be regularly charged. 
Mine lasts about 2 months...

Regards,
France


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## taipantoo (Nov 9, 2007)

Mark, I am so sorry for your loss.
Those pictures are heart breaking.

I'm not very far from you down here in North East MA.


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

Sorry about your bear troubles...Thanks for posting the pictures to remind us how important it is to keep our electric fences in tip-top shape. I went out and purchased a new $26 buck replacement battery for one of my solar fencers that failed a few weeks back. Going to install the battery today and get the fencer back in operation quickly.


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## Dave W (Aug 3, 2002)

>I keep my bees in total wilderness . . . 
>Nobody around for miles . . .

Bees, total wilderness, nobody around for miles . . .

Some folks seem to have it ALL!


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## France (Apr 5, 2007)

Dave W said:


> >I keep my bees in total wilderness . . .
> >Nobody around for miles . . .
> 
> Bees, total wilderness, nobody around for miles . . .
> ...



Dave W,

Well, there are good points and there are also some bad ones...
On the same note, I'm yet to see a Varroa in my hives? Don't mean to brag, cause, He might punish me..? 
Hope it stays that way... Cause, that is why I brought bees this way.

Regards,
France


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## markonsite (Dec 14, 2006)

Thanks everyone for your thoughts! Since this attack it has snowed here and sure enough there are bear tracks in the snow around the fence. I thought for sure the bear would break through the wire to get the other hive and leftovers, but I guess he won't cross it.
From now on the fence stays plugged in year round!

Mark


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