Hello apiarists I just put up a heart warming account of two black bears versus a solar powered electric fencer on my Son of a Beekeeper blog here on this website. It could have been a lot worse. The animals only managed to knock over the hive and slip four frames of brood out under the wire. All the same this is a cautionary tale. enjoy and beware the bear in your woodlot apiary
The other weekend visited a friend in Canton Ontario, for some bee talk. He suggested to go and check bees in one of his yards. When we got there, it was a heart breaking sight. Broken frames, boxes and covers all over the place. Four hives completely destroyed. Battery that powers electrical fence died, so bear had no problem getting in. Left my phone and camera in my truck at his house, so no pictures. I was glad I invested in solar fencers in my yards.
Can you move the pallet a bit farther away from the fence? I can just image the bear stretching out as far as it can to try to topple the stack back toward the fence (from the pics it looks like they are fairly close). As shown, the hive appears to be pretty close to being within the bears reach. This likely added to its determination to get to them. Even to the point of taking a couple pops from the wire to pull the hive over. If the hives were well outside of it's reach, I'd think there would be less of a temptation/motivation to keep going past the jolts. Once it did manage to pull the stack down, I'd say you were lucky with how the wires landed across the middle of the box. Either way, it's pretty obvious... ...a determined bear is a tough thing to keep out.
hi bobbyc, i read your blog, you are fortunate. i do have problems with bears and use 12000 volts to keep them out. critters will go under first, then through, with two wires, over. if you can, use 3 wires instead of two, and move the fence back away from the hives, or the hives away from the fence. (from your pics, it appears the hives are a little too close to the fence). if the hives are let's say less than 3 feet from the wire, they will reach through, take the shock, and tip it over.
