Help with bear fence details

[dandelion]

I'm setting a fence now, because I was told a couple of bears have been spoted a couple miles away from my 14 colony apiary.
I need to know the spacing of the wires (from the bottom up, does 7" (off the ground), 9, 12 and 12 sound good? = 40" high), how to set up the chicken wire (how wide and how far from fence?) around the fence (how is it held down, can one mow over it?). Also not having seen a bear close to the hives in years... does it make sense to bait it? How long will the bait last? How often does it need to be changed?
Thanks,
Alejandro

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[airbalancer]

If its bear thats the target you want him to take it in the nose. I would say 12 inches off the ground would be good, plus it will stay out of the weeds better. As for the chicken wire what kind of soil do you have there? If its real sandy and dry you could use the netting otherwise a few really good grounding rods should work fine. There is alot of good resources on the web for grounding fences.
Mike

[dburgess]

Why not alternate the power. Start at the bottom with a wire about 6 inches off the ground, then space the others about 8 inches apart. Using every other one on the positive post and then the others to the negative post. That way, if the bear tries to put his head inbetween any of the wires his head will make a real nice conductor and get the bear poop knocked out of him. This works real nice. Duane.

[dandelion]

dburgess,
I was wondering about that, but I have not seen that hot and ground alternate set-up in any of the sites from extension services or the like, which I checked over the internet...
Perhaps, setting more wires, say six... set at 7 " apart, wit grounds at 4, 11 and 32, and hot wires (8000v?) at 11, 25 and 39"...
Any comments?
Alejandro

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[MountainCamp]

I have a number of bee yards with bear fence here in the northern Catskills.
A simple fence that has work well is as follows:
Use 6' metal tee post and insulators. I use (3) or (4) wires based on the ground / terrian. Wires at 1', 2', 3', & 4'approxiamtely. They are all hot.
You need to get a good cattle charger at least 5000V.
Bait the wires with partially cooked beacon wraped around the wire.
Sink the ground 2 - 3 feet and keep the ground wet around it and the fence.
Make sure that the weeds / grass are kept trimmed and off the wires.
Make sure that there are no trees with branches over hanging the fence / hives that the bear could use to climb in.
Alternating the wires does not hurt if you want to run more wires, but a bear's fur is a real good insulator. So relying on the bear to touch the wires just right to get the measage is leavng things to luck.
Bait the hot wires with beacon and there is no luck required for the meaasage to be sent.

[This message has been edited by MountainCamp (edited July 09, 2003).]

[This message has been edited by MountainCamp (edited July 09, 2003).]

[beegee]

Here's a link to a bear fence from Florida: http://www.wildflorida.org/critters/...tric_Fence.pdf

[ChellesBees]

Hi Coyote,
love the bear fence (repeller?), but wouldn't it require a little more vigilance than the electric fence? I like my bees, but I also have a life.

[mark williams]

If you can teach that cinnamon bear to use a honey extractor,
send him my way,I need the help.room & board,furnished>>>>Mark

[dburgess]

dandelion,
Sounds like a good plan. I would start the bottom wire being ground/negative about 6"
off of the ground the next hot wire about 6"
above that then space them apart as you think best. Maybe a foot apart. Anyway you
look at it, If a bear gets his head between
any of these wires, it will send him on his way. If you can and have the money, I would
use a solar fence charger. It's completely portable and doesn't require a power source. Make sure you use a lightning arrestor with your fence charger. It is the life of a fence charger.