Here's some pics of one of the beeyards after our friendly neiborhood bear got done....
Here's some pics of one of the beeyards after our friendly neiborhood bear got done....
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own." Adam Savage
Wow - sorry to see your photos, Peggjam
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"If it ain't broke, I'll break it!"
Peggjam,.....that's heartbreaking! Oh my god!
I notice there's an electric fence, or what looked like one. Was it turned on and operating? Maybe not high enough voltage? Is the bear still at large,...or "resting in peace"?
[size="1"][ November 06, 2006, 09:16 PM: Message edited by: denny ][/size]
That is an awful mess. How did the bear or bears get past the fence?
Did this just happen? If still alive it will be back. My sympathy to you guys!
"Younz" have a great day, I will.
Sorry to see that.There are bear footprints in the snow circling my beeyard. I have electric mesh, but what else can you do?
From my experience, anything under 2000 volts wont stop them. 3 foot wide chicken wire on the ground tied to the fence posts and ground wire will discourage digging under the fence. Max of six inches from ground to bottom wire and between first three wires helps and alternating hot and ground wires. I run 8 to 10 thousand volt chargers. I have to have at least 20 hives in a yard to justify the cost of the fence and charger. We have bears causing problems at both of my neighbors and in town a mile away but they have stayed away from my hives(Knock on Wood).
The chicken wire at the bottom sure is a nuesence when it comes to weed eating around the fence though.
I gave up beekeeping in '89 because of the bears and have just started back up three years ago.
doug
You had one thing going for you though, that was the plastic foundation. Standard wax does not have a chanch. I have been through it twice with bears.
Walt
Peggjam, I wish I could say I have no idea how it feels coming up on a yard after a bear. I have been hit more times over the years than I can remember. This spring my yard by the river was hit. The fence charger fuse popped. He had a field day for a few nights. Got a call from the farmer about the damage and that he had just chanced him off. He was back 3 times before I got there. I brought him a S&W present, but he never came in to get it when I was cleaning up.
I have been hit when there is a problem with the fence / charger.
I did not notice any bait on the fence. Do you bait it? I take a little wire and wrap it around the hot wire and make a hook end. I put my bait on this, they get it in the nose if they sniff it or the top of the mouth if they bite it.
That seems to cure them of their bad habits.
I noticed the same thing as Walt... looks like your plastic frames fared better than the wood. But wow, what a mess. Is anything salvable at this time of year?
“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.” -Henry David Thoreau
Yes the fence was on, and hot. I did at one time have some bait on the wires, not sure where that went. Once a bear gets his head in, the hottest fence in the world wouldn't keep them out, maybe one that stopped his heart...LOL. Also something to keep in mind when setting up yards is that black bears can and will climb, althouth that wasn't the case here. We had 12 hives, of which 4 are history. The nuc you see in the back ground of one of the pictures (the white one) he rolled around but couldn't open, and they are doing good. The other nuc he tore apart and there is nothing left of that one. The plastic frames held up really well, none broke, that was a plus. The "bear" is still at large.....for now...but has been moved to the top of my ten most wanted list, along with a wesiel and some mink, and fox...LOL. All in all, we were lucky enough to find it the next morning, we cleaned up and moved the remaining hives to the home yard.
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own." Adam Savage
Sorry to see the damage. Wish it hadn't happened to you. As a former resident of that general area though it is good to see the environment is still suitable for bear. All we are good for down here now are those #$@! vermin called white- tailed deer.
Not to belittle your loss. But I've seen worse. You appear to have lost one or two hives.
I was expecting to see what I have seen where the yard looks like a Bull Dozer ran over it more than once.
About 10 years ago, when the local dump closed near Malone, NY, a friend of mine and I went to take off honey from one of his yards and there wasn't enough equipment left to put together more than a few boxes. And this was in a 40 hive yard.
The land owner told us that a mother bear and her two cubs had worked on that yard for two or three nights in a row.
If he had called my friend the first night he could have gotten some one to harvest the bear.
Bear laws in NY are on the side of the bear. I guess we have more options then the bears do. I do believe that if a bear kills or worries your livestock (cattle or horses, not bees) you can protect them with force. I've also heard of people who got into trouble for shooting a bear that was trying to come in to their cabin.
Mark Berninghausen
www.uucantonny.org, "Support Our Troops"
According to my source at DEC, I can harvest this bear day or night, without any premit. I just have to let them know I shot it.
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own." Adam Savage
First time I've seen good reason to use plastic frames.
Harvest away (the bear that is).
Man am I glad that we don't have bear problems here in Indiana. That would make me sick.
Columbia City, Indiana
I am so sorry. How far East of Buffalo did you say you were? Not too worried but I had not been thinking about bears recently. Well pretty soon they will be going to sleep for a while.
Bob
>>First time I've seen good reason to use plastic frames.
If this happened in July,the sun would warp the plastic frames enough to ruin them .Found out the hard way.
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