New to Site- Have Problem

[oh!honey]

It is deer season and a hunter must have disturbed a bear as he found my hive. We thought we had enough electric fence around the hive but apparently not. The bear destroyed and ate all the honey and we lost half of our bees. We moved the hive into a small shed that should protect it, but what should I do about feeding the bees, or did I lose to much for them to survive? It is 27 degrees out right now. Thanks for any advice

[Rader Sidetrack]

Welcome to Beesource!

See my response to your similar question in the Bee Forum. (Its not necessary to post a given topic in more than one forum.)

[AmericasBeekeeper]

Welcome OH!

[samoadc]

sugar water will do just fine as long as you have enough money to keep it up until nectar is once more available. Probably a good idea to be very sure your building is strong enough to prevent the bears from entering. Maybe an electric fencer wire around it would save the day,particularly the door or any boards the bear might claw loose. Good Luck

[squarepeg]

sugar water may not work so good with temps 50 degrees and less.

some put dry sugar on top of the frames over the broodnest, and maybe spritz it with a little water, but mostly allowing the moisture in the hive to hydrate it.

i found that mixing sugar/water at something like 10:1 gives you a moist patty that the bees can readily take.

i put it on some plastic sheet, right on the top bars, and around the top of the cluster.

i like to use about 1000mg of vitamin c per 'gallon' of mix to get the ph down a bit.

good luck!

[Lazer128]

Sorry to hear about your bear problem but welcome to the site. I recently joined too and "bears" is my biggest concern. We have a lot of them here. When you get your bees settled in again, I would like to understand what your fence design was. What do you think a hunter did to add to this problem? Pretty sure a hunter could "solve" your problem! lol I plan to use a 5'-6' high high tension electric fence spaced 6" apart powered with a 6-7 joule charger. I sure hope my fence solves the problem.