[falls pa]

Tuesday evening some time my hive got hit by a bear. He threw it around, but only damaged one frame of a double deep. I didn't notice the damage till wendsday evening. I didn't get the hive all back together till Thursday mid day. If I go anywhere near this hive now, I get attacked. They are super defensive and pissed off.

My thought is that I may have lost my queen is this attack. the bee's were outdoors unprotected for 36 hours. frames laying flat on each other. just a mess. I got all the frames back in the hive. a lot of casualties.

My question now is this. I have another good hive about 20 miles away. I'm thinking about moving a frame of fresh eggs to this bear hit hive.

How do I make this half hour trip ? will the freshly laid eggs make the trip? do I need a heated cooler or something to make this move?

Thanks for any advise.
Rich

 

[dawsong]

Yes you would need to keep the eggs as closed to 90 degrees as possible with a warm damp towel over the frame to keep the eggs from drying out.

 

[Satch]

Put the frame of brood in a cooler with a burrito from Taco Bell.

Keeps the brood nice and warm and after you place the brood in the new hive you get lunch.

You can thank me later.

 

[Phoebee]

For that length of time you might try a water bottle or two warmed to a couple of degrees above your target temperature. In an ice chest that can fit the frames should be good.

 

[sharpdog]

Put the frame of brood in a cooler with a burrito from Taco Bell.

Keeps the brood nice and warm and after you place the brood in the new hive you get lunch.

You can thank me later.

Now that's the idea of the day!


I was hit by a bear a few times last year. Bees take quite a while to settle down. I would be very surprised it no eggs or the queen survived. I would wait 5 or 6 days, then go in and look for eggs or queen cells.
Also, that bear will be back if it hasn't already been turned into a "Good Bear".

But either way get the burrito before you do anything else!

Luke

 

[estreya]

Satch ... I LOVE it!

Now THAT is practical advise.

 

[fruitveggirl]

Satch -- Awesome! Those were words of practical beekeeping wisdom at its finest!

@ Falls Pa -- Get yourself an electric fence, asap. Right before I picked up my bees last year, they had gone through a bear attack, and they were kind of pissy for a few weeks after I got them. They settled down, though, until the fall when they got really defensive again. I couldn't figure out why until I woke up one morning to my hive completely torn apart. Took me all day putting it back together an dealing with the aftermath. Rotten bear came back again -- TWICE -- the same night.

Now that your bear knows where the grub is, you can trust it to keep coming back unless you take some countermeasures. If you're not sure how to put up a fence, here is a great video that I posted on my website this past week. http://happyhourtopbar.blogspot.com/2014/05/ready-and-waiting.html

Good luck!

 

[fruitveggirl]

One other thing, here is some good advice that I got in the past - though not as good as the advice about the burrito -- Keep a minimum of 2 hives at each location. It'll be easier to deal with emergencies.

 

[Colobee]

Amen to electric fences! Clorox or Ammonia are also said to sometimes provide a temporary deterant. My hot wire now has four strands - the newest & lowest to train a young bear that came in (under), last summer. AHB behavior lasted almost a month.

 

[waynesgarden]

Your bees might not like this idea, but you might consider moving the attack survivor hive the 20 miles to join your other hive for few weeks. Get it queenright there and give the bear time to believe that the buffet is closed.

The bears that pestered me in Maine seemed to passing through and seldom stuck around very long. There would be a week or so of raiding bird feeders and only once did they find the unprotected hives in my backyard. After that attack, I moved the remaining hives to a fenced bee yard I had about 10 minutes away. Kept them there until the bears moved on. No big deal to move them.

Have no idea what the bear situation will be now that I'm recently settled in a bit north of you but the hives are inside a partitioned-off section of horse/ cow pasture w/ electric fencing. Bears will be bears and feasting on an unprotected hive is the natural order of things. Since I don't believe in killing as the solution to all of nature's problems, I take reasonable steps to protect my hives.

Wayne

 

[Ravenseye]

I've found that a colony may stay grumpy for a while after a bear attack. One in particular was nasty for a couple of weeks although that one got hit in the fall and the bees were defensive to begin with. It's imperative to find out about the queen so that you have some idea of what to expect in the future and can plan your inspections accordingly. The electric fence is important too. Bears have long memories and will come back to a spot that they believe may hold food even if that spot hasn't been visited in a long time.

 

[MTN-Bees]

A high quality/ strong electric fence and charger should take care of the problem. The Parmak Magnum 12s are good units for bears.

I would move the hive out of the area until you get the electric fence installed. Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife has a good apiary fence design.

 

[McBee7]

I'm told that bears in my area come arround in mid to late june and its the male bears looking for a mate,,,,but in the fall it's the mama's with the cubs looking to fatten up before winter...either way today I worked on the bee-yard fence,,,,17 by 34 with a 8000 volt charger ....Hopefully with 8k volts, the bear will be leaving more (a pile) than he is taking away, if he gets too close..

==McBee7==

 

[BTG]

Ok... So last night my beloved German Shorthair Pointer that fortunately turned 1 today went out and started barking incessantly. It is not like him to bark a lot. So I went down to see what was going on and he was in the driveway barking in the direction of the bees. When I yelled at him he didn't give it up and ran in the direction of the bees. My bees are about 40 yards from my house but behind some shrubs. I walked over to where I could see the bees and my two long hives are still on the stand completely untouched but I had a 4 frame nuc sitting on top that was completely gone. There were quite a few bees flying around looking like they couldn't figure out where their home went. I am hoping they gave up and joined the other hives. The bear carried the nuc away. I went in the house to tell my wife about it and put boots on to go look for the remains. My wife's request was that I bring a gun... (a 30/06 is a great bear solution if you happen to have it when you see the bear...) I didn't see the bear but about 50 yards away in the woods I found the remains of my nuc. One of the hinges on the top was ripped off. All of the comb is gone except a few small globs and a little honey in the bottom now with a few bees clustered on the edges. On my way home from work tonight I plan to get a couple bear traps and put them on top of my hives that haven't bee hit yet... assuming they are not hit today while I am at work. I like the electric fence idea but if I do that I will make it so powerful that it will kill the bear and anything else that touches it. That would be a little dangerous. I tried to upload a picture but every time I try to upload it gives me the finger. Not sure whats up with that. Maybe there is a size limit.

 

[Ravenseye]

Yes, there is a size limit. Here's a link to the forum rules and you'll find the requirements for posting pictures in there:

www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?226194-Forum-Rules

I don't think that making a killer electric fence is the best solution. You really need a deterrent and a good jolt of non-lethal electricity does just that. The bear decides that better food sources can be found elsewhere. As mentioned, they have a great memory for good AND bad things. A high voltage fence could injure you, a passerby or non-target animals such as deer, etc. As a hunter who has shot bear and as a beekeeper who has learned to live with them I do appreciate their destructive potential yet I personally prefer helping them to take a pass on my bees using the safest and least intrusive method possible.

 

[waynesgarden]

I like the electric fence idea but if I do that I will make it so powerful that it will kill the bear and anything else that touches it. That would be a little dangerous.

That would be more than a "little dangerous" if your dog touched it. Or if a child touched it. Or if you or your wife touched it. We've had this discussion before when someone proudly posted photos of a deer killed by his electric fence. We also discussed the man that faced homicide charges when his fence, wired directly into a house circuit, killed a neighbors child.

I've accidentally touched the electric fence surrounding my garden/bee yard and it was more than enough to get my attention.

Wayne

 

[Andrew Dewey]

I like Wayne's idea of moving the hive for a bit - which will give you wiggle room in getting your electric fence set up. There are a number of good designs out there. I use sheep netting where I can and otherwise use 4 strands of basic wire at heights of 6", 16", 26" and 36" - good grounding system required. Depending on your soil, you may need to daisy chain ground rods to accomplish this.

Once the fence is set up and operating properly, you can bring your hive back to it.

I encourage you to get a volt meter and see what the charge on the fence is. The PA Dept of Ag probably has a minimum recommended voltage for a bear fence. Find out what it is and be sure you fence has at least that amount of a charge.

 

[BTG]

That would be more than a "little dangerous" if your dog touched it. Or if a child touched it. Or if you or your wife touched it. We've had this discussion before when someone proudly posted photos of a deer killed by his electric fence. We also discussed the man that faced homicide charges when his fence, wired directly into a house circuit, killed a neighbors child.

I've accidentally touched the electric fence surrounding my garden/bee yard and it was more than enough to get my attention.

Wayne

Where I live there are not likely to be any kids. My wife stays as far away as possible and if I was to do something like that I would make it high enough that my dog would be under it. My hives are on a stand about 4 feet high (a pretty nice work height) and the dogs can walk under them. Another option might be to just electrify the top covers. I also said I don't plan to do it.

 

[BTG]

I always thought bear are kind of neat... But that was before one decided to have my bees for dinner. Now I want a bear skin rug. My neighbor had a lot of problems with bears in his bees a while ago and the Department of Environmental Conservation told him he could shoot it. The only problem with that is you have to see the bear to do it.

 

[Phoebee]

Yeah, black bears in the middle of the night. We've had one after the bird feeder. The 7.5 kV 3 J electric tiger cage around the apiary has proven effective, and we ran an underground fence supply line over to the bird feeder and ran a small fence around that. We got some good pictures of the bears (one big one and a smaller one) with a game camera using its infrared illuminator, but we've never seen either of these bears with our own eyes. The fence has stopped the bird feeder problem. We don't bait the fence ... this one seems strong enough to work without it.