Trouble with bears

J

jgarr44460

Cathlete
We have a small bee hive and last year harvested the most incredible honey I have ever tasted. I was so looking forward to this years harvest when we woke up to find a bear had trashed the hive. Not to be deterred, my DH set it back up and darn if a month later the bear didn't return again and trash the hive. I have learned that bears have a very good memory and will come back again once they know a hive is there. We had heard of bears moving into Dutchess County NY but never saw evidence of one so close. The bear has returned three times now. It's a little unnerving seeing those rather large foot prints in my backyard. My DH is now on a mission to beat the bear at this game and save his hive. We are told by the D.E.C. that we have the "right" to shoot the bear if we see it in our yard. My husband won't do this (I agree) however I am having visions of Wile E Coyote and his Acme contraptions. My husband is building deterrents as I write. My question is this: Has anyone successfully kept a bear from returning to their yard without shooting it???
 
We have had bears on our property also and while I haven't actually seen one in a while I see their prints and their poop. I met one walking the dog one day. Came around a turn and there was a bear standing there. I literally could not believe my eyes. Also lost my big trash container and found it across the lane in the woods with teeth and claw marks. I honestly don't know how you would protect your hives. I know no one here even keeps bird feeders any more once the weather is warm. We also had a bear sleeping up a tree at the golf course which is right in the center of town. Traffic backup for that one.
 
PhyllisG said:
We have had bears on our property also and while I haven't actually seen one in a while I see their prints and their poop. I met one walking the dog one day. Came around a turn and there was a bear standing there. I literally could not believe my eyes. Also lost my big trash container and found it across the lane in the woods with teeth and claw marks. I honestly don't know how you would protect your hives. I know no one here even keeps bird feeders any more once the weather is warm. We also had a bear sleeping up a tree at the golf course which is right in the center of town. Traffic backup for that one.
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scaaaaary!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
Phyllis I did notice the signs going into your town about bear alert levels or something like that. Never saw that growing up. Having them in the backyard down here is a surprise though. I realise they are noctural animals but I will be a little nervous this year when my berry patch produces. I think this bear will have found his own private heaven. I hear the bears sighted in my neighborhood are a mother bear and two cubs.
 
I have absolutely no advice for you but find your story extremely intriguing. What kind of deterrents is he building? I would imagine it will be very hard to keep a bear away once it has discovered a food source. Please keep us posted on his successes and failures. I once had a home in the country that had a sort of ant super highway that crossed the terrace. Every male that visited us there spent the first few days trying to get rid of them. The ants always won.
 
I have no idea why, because I have absolutely no experience with bears, but the thought came to mind of possibly suspending the hive from a sturdy tree branch, like you would do with your food if you were camping in bear country.
 
The deterrents recommended by the D.E.C. are an electric fence and/or boards with nails sticking up. Neither of them are supposed to harm the bear just let him/her associate coming to the hive with pain so they won't return. The other suggestion from what we've read is to move the hive to another location. The D.E.C. is very supportive of people with hives - you can register them - as the bee population is dwindling. I just enjoyed the honey. With our berry patch nearby it tasted fruity and so much better than store bought honey.
 
I'd just leave the honey to the bears and the bees- they need it more than you do. As for shooting the bear, well, they have the right to exist on this planet as much, if not more, than we do, and we are constantly encroaching on their ecospace. They are just trying to survive. A lot more bears get hurt by humans than humans by bears.
 
They also have the right to eat up your children when they are playing in the backyard unless of course you can smoke a little hash with them and talk out your differences before singing kumbaya together ;)
 
If I were a bear I'd be so d*mned mad about having my habitat destroyed by developers I'd behave like the bear in the TUMS commercial... all the time. Food. Cars. Bee hives. It's all good.

One day, I'm going to be that really old lady at the grocery store, counting out my pennies in the checkout line, making all the youngsters wait, dammit :p.

BTW, do bears ever get bee stung?
 
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Could you install a motion sensor that would use flashing lights or a loud noise to startle the bear away from the hive? Some people use them here in CT to scare deer away from their gardens. (My dogs are useless against deer. They do nothing--they don't even bark at them. Just look at go back to their nap. :p)

Delivery trucks are another matter though...:rolleyes:
 
Beavs said:
They also have the right to eat up your children when they are playing in the backyard unless of course you can smoke a little hash with them and talk out your differences before singing kumbaya together ;)
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Don't be silly; bears are too busy stealing picnic baskets from campers to sing! Why picnic baskets? They have the munchies from all that hash!
 
I have a colleague who has started keeping his own bees. He built a pretty heavy duty fencing system around his hives to keep bears out. So far, so good.

You can also use electric fencing. The Kentucky Dept of Fish and Wildlife have a pretty decent article on that method: http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/blackbearsandbeeyards.pdf

Here are some non-lethal suggestions from the Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario. I wouldn't go for staking a dog out at the hive, but I wonder if a bear would be deterred by coyote urine spread around the hive site. You can buy that by the bottle. :) :

Harassing or Deterring

This option covers a wide range of actions that a beekeeper may take to either prevent a bear from coming into contact with the hives, or discouraging a bear that has visited the hives from returning. Clearly the former course of action is preferred over the latter, given that bears are difficult to deter once they have had a food reward.

Some options to prevent bears from coming into contact with hives include such traditional devices as:


  • fencing (electric fencing is the preferred and most effective option in most situations)
  • motion-activated devices can be set up to scare away bears, if power is available. This could include any device that would make loud noises - such as a radio tuned to a local hard rock station
  • propane-powered "Bangers" many farmers use to scare raccoons and birds from corn
  • dogs may be staked out in the hive area
 
Gayle Thank you very much for all this info. I will pass it on to my DH. We are just looking to safely co exist with our bears.
 
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