Hello Cindi! Bear protection or ??
Jorn, ya, bear protection. We live along a bear path. They travel along the ravine near to our home and then just carry on out of the ravine, along our property and then onto the neighbours living towards the east and then further I guess. I wanted to protect the bees the best that I could and my husband never does anything in a small way. He built a fortress for me. I am a lucky woman. The bears are more prevalent in the early summer, then don't seem to come around much until the next summer, sightings are now and then during summer and fall. I have some posts that I have submitted that tell of a couple of stories about dogs and people "getting" the electric fence. You could find them if you looked at my previous posts, they are a hoot and a hollar. I had the pleasure of actually feeling it a couple of times too. Gotta laugh. There was one time when I bent over to gather some seeds and got it right in the rear end, now that was a jolt and a half. Thank goodness I am rather toughed butted!!! My poor neighbour that lives about 1/2 km through the bush westward of me had the bear rip apart her two hives in April. I felt so bad. She had them sitting out in her backyard (no fence of any sort) and the bear just helped him/herself. She fixed them up and put a fence of some sort around it and managed to get a little bit of honey for herself eventually. Brother oh brother, gotta love the beasts, but at the same time they can be a nuisance. One other beekeeper that I know of has about 100 hives that he uses mostly for pollination of the blueberries, cranberries and a few others (lets his hives out for rent), in the wintertime when they are in his beeyard only has an electric fence that is not much more than knee-high. I know this cause we stepped over it to go ito it. I was shocked, but he said the bears in his neck of the woods know what the fence does. He also in the time when the colonies are in his beeyard, has metal screening that he places on the ground so that if anything walks on it, watch out, he has cows to deal with in his beeyard, and he says that they are totally AWARE of the apiary and leave it alone. Yikes!!! Have an awesome day of days. Cindi. We have very, very strong winds today, my windchimes are going nuts!!!!