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Bear Attack

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Donovan J:
My hive was attacked by a bear. The one thing I didn't want to happen. I went out Monday morning to take a look at the hive and it was drug across the yard, pallet, ratchet strap, and all and there was frames and boxes everywhere. Luckily the bottom brood box was still intact on its side with all the frames in it. The top brood box was intact with a few frames missing. Both honey supers were slightly damaged with all frames scattered and without honey. I quickly put them back together and immediately moved them to a different spot miles away so they are safe. My question is where to go from here? I'm planning on checking for a queen in a few days after they settle down and feeding them 2:1 syrup to replenish stores. They seem calm like they have a queen but I'm not hinging my bets on it and I'm willing to buy a new queen if needed

TheHoneyPump:
You?ve done all the right things after bear attack.
The only thing I would change is about when to go check them.  Give them 7 to 10 days before you go dig in. But not more than 12. Reason to wait a bit longer is at the 7-10 day point they will have cleaned themselves up, repaired the critical areas of damage, and .. it will be easy and very clear to know if they are queenrite.  Queen = nice new patches of eggs and young juicy larvae.  No queen = only capped brood and nice patches of emergency queen cells capped everywhere.  If you go in sooner, you will have to look around lot more and work harder to find what you are trying to figure out (queen or no).  More that 12 days you risk missing the window to -manage- the recovery by havoc of multiple emerged virgins running around causing chaos .
Other than that, manage the hive the same as and no different than any other hive in your apiary.  If they need feed, the. feed now.  No need to wait for after the inspection. 

Hope that helps!

The15thMember:
I've never dealt with this personally, but people do in my area, and everyone I've talked to about it says electric is the only way to keep them out once they've destroyed a hive. 

BeeMaster2:
Sorry to hear about the bear attack. I?ve been in your shoes. You were lucky. Bears usually go for the brood first for the protein.
You will definitely need a strong, minimum 5 mile electric fence to stop that bear. When you set it up, make sure you use an eight foot ground rod and hang a piece of lunch meat or 2 on the Elecrtic wire. My bear never returned after finding it. When they bite it, they not only get a shock, it will also light up their brain which gives them a bright white flash on light in their eyes like you would not believe as well as a bad shock to the heart. As a retired electronics technician, I know how bad it can bee.
Jim Altmiller

Michael Bush:
Also, if you live in an area with dry spells, be sure to water the ground rod when you haven't had rain recently...

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