[Andrew Dewey]

I've had three swarms move into deadouts I had stacked by my house {maybe two feet from the house}. I haven't moved them yet as I wanted them to firmly establish themselves in their new digs.

My wife scared away a black bear about an hour ago - since then I've setup a wimpy electric fence by flashlight - which is showing about 1KV on the tester. This energizer came off a pig pen setup today (pigs arrive tomorrow) and properly setup was generating 8.9KV on the fence. Near the house is pure gravel. Tough to ground - tough to get fence posts in the ground!

Aside from leaving my outside lights on is there anything aside from sleeping out there all night I can do to keep these bees undisturbed? {It is way too buggy to sleep out there.}

Two of the three swarms don't yet have bottom boards (something I was going to do tomorrow) or the hives could get moved tonight into the bee yard.

I'm thinking perhaps parking my pickup inches in front of the hives might help.

So keep your fingers crossed for me tonight. I wish I had a dog, but I don't.

 

[waynesgarden]

Hi Andrew,

Can you slide the hives into the back of the pickup and park it in the bee yard for the night? Good luck with Mr. Bear.

Don't have the bear problems here that I did in Maine. Partly because the place I rent came with electric-fenced pastures for the cattle.

Wayne

 

[Bear Creek Steve]

Andrew,

And all along I thought you were Mr. Tough Guy. Good luck, and I hope you get through the night OK.

Steve

 

[Andrew Dewey]

Interesting thought. I could certainly move the one that has the bottom board. Of the others one is a stack of five deeps and the remaining one a stack of two. I might do the smaller one. Something to think about for a few minutes.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

Andrew,

And all along I thought you were Mr. Tough Guy. Good luck, and I hope you get through the night OK.

Steve

I wish. I'm 54, over weight and knackered from working on the pig pen today. In fact my wife got me out of bed to tell me about the bear.

Thank you for the good wishes.

 

[zhiv9]

You could try a radio? And put a good ratchetting strap around each hive.

 

[Brad Bee]

Pour salt water around the ground rod for the fence and run an extra wire to the ground rod on your house. Wet (saturate) the ground around the entire fence. Retest the fence after doing that and you'll see a huge difference in output.

 

[Tenbears]

I do not know how this will work on bear that are at all acclimated to the presence of humans. But when I hunted elk and we harvested elk too late in the day to get them back to camp. we would set out a blinking LED light. and hang our tee shirts, which we had hunted in for a day or two, or three about 25 yards around the harvest. I have had bear come into camp and raid the coolers, but they have never had them feast on my kill.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

You could try a radio? And put a good ratchetting strap around each hive.

The bees are now being serenaded by NPR.

 

[Juhani Lunden]

Almost 150 hives destroyed in Finland so far.
One big male had 3 of my hives for breakfast, some bears cannot be stopped by fences.

Fences are payed by the state, battery is not included. The new model is charging with solar power.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

We made it through the night! I just turned off the lights - the radio is still on. Now back to bed. Thanks everyone! I will check the voltage on the bee yard fence this morning and do whatever maintenance needs to be done. And move the swarms from the next to the house today,

 

[My-smokepole]

A 30-06 helps a lot. plus meat. Cousin and his boys got three this spring.
David

 

[Mark E]

The bees are now being serenaded by NPR.

Aren't you worried they would abscond? Unless of course they were listening to 'Car Talk'. ;-)

 

[gone2seed]

You can also hook a radio to a security light(motion detector).I use this in my bee yard inside the electric fence.

 

[Andrew Dewey]

A 30-06 helps a lot. plus meat. Cousin and his boys got three this spring.
David

Have to be a 12ga with slug. I have thought about it.

Bottom boards are now on - I checked the last swarm to move in - lots of nectar storage, no eggs/larvae that I could see. It was a very quick inspection and I did not lay eyes on a queen.

 

[Rader Sidetrack]

If your fence posts are steel, in addition to the normal ground rod, you can run/attach a ground wire to several or all of the fence posts for better grounding.

 

[atgreene]

If you run a couple hot lines with a ground line on each side of the hot, ground them direct to the fencer, ole pooh bear will ground between the hot and ground and run back to the hundred acre wood with a bad headache. Good luck.

 

[lazy shooter]

The salt water will greatly enhance conduction of electricity and aid in grounding the fence.

 

[Colobee]

Ammonia is said to be a very good effective repellant - it really messes with their sensitive sense of smell. Clorox also works, but DON'T mix the two!

You can run insulated wire from a charger to your hot wire ( mine is~ 60-70' of stranded #12 electrical wire) and likewise for the ground - just run any wire (needn't be insulated) to a rod/steel post in the ground wherever convenient. & yes, moisture/saltwater improves the zap, but mine is still quite a jolt even when bone dry. I sometimes test mine with a short piece of (same) grounded, insulated, wire and get a loud "pop" and ~3/16" inch spark (from hot wire, to grounded test wire) when it's working "properly".



'Good to hear you made it through the night.

 

[Hogback Honey]

I got a hint from a keep, told me to lay down chicken wire on the entire perimeter of the electric fence and attach the ground to it.