Bears destroyed 2 hives

I had two hives completely destroyed by a bear. He didn't smash any boxes this time, but a lot of frames were wiped out. Both hives were huge and very strong. They had two brood boxes and both were working on their second deep honey supers. Bees covered at least 16 or 17 of the 20 frames in 2 brood boxes. The first deep honey supers were close to 70% full.
The Dept. Of Fish and Game will be reimbursing me, and I need a fair amount at which to value them. Can anyone tell me what the national price average for these hives would be? I am having a hard time reaching a price.
Thank you.:s

Some places deeps can by purchased full of bees for around $100. I would double that, and add the $ amount for how much honey you had. I think a full deep would be about 60#. Then try to find a bulk rate for honey.

I have no experience with this, but that is what I would do. If they don't like that number, send them another one.

Don't know the national price average, but most five frame nucs sell for around 115, so that would be 230 per deep box ( I would say minimal 200, minus one queen). How did you get The Dept. of Fish and Game to reimburse you? Did you have the hives registered with them? If so, is there a fee involved in that?

They have a $1000.00 deductable for damaged agricultural property, including the apiary.

I'd figure drawn frames with bees at $25/frame, estimate honey weight x retail value (I sell all of my honey retail), and add the cost of replacement queens of similar value.

The purpose of insurance is to make you 'whole' -that is, to restore you to the condition you'd be in if you had not suffered loss.
\When a guy sells a hive by his choice, he will often get considerably less than replacement cost so that is a poor standard for valuation of the purchases needed to restore you to the condition you were in before the damage occurred.

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Originally Posted by Beregondo

I'd figure drawn frames with bees at $25/frame, estimate honey weight x retail value (I sell all of my honey retail), and add the cost of replacement queens of similar value.

The purpose of insurance is to make you 'whole' -that is, to restore you to the condition you'd be in if you had not suffered loss.
\When a guy sells a hive by his choice, he will often get considerably less than replacement cost so that is a poor standard for valuation of the purchases needed to restore you to the condition you were in before the damage occurred.

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That's getting me closer to the solution. Thank you.
My drawn comb is the most valuable thing, besides the bees. I lost all of that except 2 or 3. A package of bees, with approx 10,000 bees, runs round $100.00, including the queen. So, $75.00 per 10,000 bee sound about right? I think I may have had approx 35,000 bees in each hive? Ya think?

sorry to hear that... did you have a fence up?

After it happened, we set them back up and bought a fence to try out, since we are going to be needing it. The bear went right through it and finished of any bits of comb he may have left behind the first time. Like me, they always come back to a food source.
http://www.udap.com/bearshock.htm

Now that he has a taste he may be difficult to stop. Fall general season is open here in oregon.

Don't forget to add the fence.

When the ground is very dry, sometimes these electric fences are not as shocky....we use a big fencer here for our livestock and sometimes hard to get a spark. Need to look at the joules your fencer supplies and train the animals when the ground is wet.

A good trick on dry ground is to lay some chain link fence on the ground under the fence and tie your ground wire to it.

if it where me. i would ask the fish and game what the fine would be, if i where walking down the road and saw a bear and her cubs and went comando and killed them and ate them. and if caught what would the fine be to the state fish and game dept. but thats just me. i bet they would fine you more for killing there bears , than they will pay for there bears killing your bees. just something to think about while thinking about compansation.

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If I were you I would eat a lot of bear meat this winter, instead of sending us taxpayers the bill.

Those hives were not nucs or just foundation and boxes. They were productio n colonies with a crop on top! They were not some commercial beeks extras surplus to his needs in the fall. The 2 box brood chamber equipment, bees and winter feed. Are worth $350. 70% full supers are worth the cost of the drawn comb and for two of them, about 85 pounds of honey. IF you sell it wholesale, that is $2 a pound, five if you retail it. Let them properly value their bear by properly valueing your livestock!

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Originally Posted by MichaelShantz

If I were you I would eat a lot of bear meat this winter, instead of sending us taxpayers the bill.

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Here we go. It always happens here.