Honey Bees and Bears
ebook US$15.00 I am currently changing the delivery system for my ebooks. Please email me from the 'Contact Me' form if you wish to purchase this ebook. In isolated out locations the combination of honey bees and bears can be a real problem, as they can flat out destroy hives in minutes! Bear steak is not an adequate solution, as your chances of catching the bear in the act are remote at least. Electric fencing is about the only solution to bear predation. A solar charged electric fencer using alternate “hot” and ground wires every six inches up to about three feet will deter bears. (Bears can be trained to "respect" the electric fence by hanging pieces of bacon on the hot wires. The bear will try to grab the bacon and get a little electric shock)
A standard battery-operated fence charger will work fine, as a separate solar-charging module can be purchased from Stores To prevent theft of the fencer, place the control unit and battery inside a deep hive body, cover it with plywood, seal the bottom entrance on the standard bottom board with fibreglass window screen to keep out the bees, then place the unit under a normal beehive.
The solar charging unit itself can be placed between beehives, so it has a “low visibility signature”. Only another kind of “bear” would bother it now!
You can see by these photos what happened when I once had to place two hives out of sight of a house. A bear really tore them apart. [In my ebook I also cover in detail pests such as ants and skunks, both can be very damaging to beehives.]
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