Bear attacked my hives oh no, please no!!!

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

My hives were all strapped, the only thing that saved my hives.  The hives were to heavy for me to lift so I called friends for help.  These bees were mad, I have never seen such mad bees.  Even with heavy smoke and my jacket with veil I was chased into the woods.  My legs were stung up bad as I just wear jeans.  I removed stingers from my jeans for 1/2 hour.  The hives in the back of my apiary are TF hives which are kind of defensive, but my gosh, after the bear damage these bees wanted to kill someone.

One hive, the nuc in the pic,  is only forty feet from my back door.  My concern is the bear will be back, tonight.  Oh no, not a good day.

The nuc in the upper photo has the bottom board screwed to the hive body, in this case, a good thing.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

6 hives were knocked over, some drag down hill, some of the hives were strapped to the stand so the bear knocked the whole thing over, stand and hive.

[iddee]

He will be back tonight. I would be waiting with a 12 Gage with either buck shot or rock salt, depending on local game laws.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Another hive showing my screened bottom board, again, the straps saved my hives.  This particular hive was dragged six feet from the stand.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

He will be back tonight. I would be waiting with a 12 Gage with either buck shot or rock salt, depending on local game laws.

Wallace, my wife would agree with you, the lil lady is about ready to put this house on the market and she wants me to carry a side arm at night, A SIDE ARM!!!!! If the bear comes back I will probably have to provide professional therapy for my sweetie pie.

[iddee]

Well, I wouldn't want to face a bear with my little 2 in. barrel .32, but I would be waiting for him with something more fitting for the occasion.

[BeeMaster2]

Van,
Sorry to hear about the attack. I would definitely have at least a 357 magnum or a 12 guage with double alt buck. Sp.
I know it is late but you really need a good strong electric fence to stop that bear. If you do put one up, be sure to hang a piece of lunch meat in the wire. It worked great for my problem bear.
Jim

[herbhome]

Sorry for your bad luck, Van. Wally and Jim are dead on right. Once they know the address they will not stop until stopped. Possibly game and fish will trap and remove but I suspect their help will be slow in coming. Bears are tough, once you shoot keep shooting till he stops wiggling!

[Ben Framed]

Mr Van, dang bear!! I am thinking that I would probably bust  a cap on him also!! I don't have bears here but something did knock one of my hives over a month or so ago and it was strapped. All looked to be well and in one piece until I opened it up!! What a mess!! The jar of the fall pancaked the wax together and The wax was indeed stacked like pancakes, jared loose from the frames. Killed many bees  I treated it as a cut out and salvaged what I could with rubber banding the remnants back in the frames. Couldn't find the queen and panicked: I bought some queens from David at barnyard bees !! All turned out better that the first! I just simply made splits with what was left. Best to you sir and if you didn't have time to put up the electric fence today, I would very strongly suggest the heavy duty firearm tonight!!  God Bless you my friend..
Sincerely; Phillip

[Ben Framed]

Sorry for your bad luck, Van. Wally and Jim are dead on right. Once they know the address they will not stop until stopped. Possibly game and fish will trap and remove but I suspect their help will be slow in coming. Bears are tough, once you shoot keep shooting till he stops wiggling!

And then shoot one more time !!  😁

[beepro]

I disagree because the more you shoot the more they will come.  It is not the answer.  Put up an
electric fence will deter them since you have so many hives on the same location.  If you cannot move them to
another location then you have to protect them this winter.   The bear will not give up that easily now that they found your
hives.  These are hungry bears.  Deter and protect the hives!

[blackforest beekeeper]

At least You may help Yourself!
In Germany first one may not own a gun. Second if You own a gun (legally, quite a process) and shoot a bear (which are just arriving again in Germany) or a wolf (we got those again...) you get a sentence worse than if You shot a kid....

[blackforest beekeeper]

We have some bears in a park just down the road. There are also some hives just across the fence put there by our bees-club. One of the bears lived wild in Romania. He keeps ripping out bushes and stacking them against the electric fence, cause he learned how to get at the bees despite the fence.... Of course, this is an animal-park-fence. He will not get the better of it as long as there is some voltage to speak of.
good luck!
I`d go for a strong gun, too. And then fencing.

[ed/La.]

I would try other options before shooting bear. Are you going to shoot the next bear that shows up and the one after that. There is not just one bear around, how many need to be shot.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

The bear did not return last night.  I did Shine a spot light several times during the night, no bear.  My hives are strapped even tighter.  All the bear can do is knock over and roll hives.

Arkansas has some very serious game laws:  it is illegal to shot a reptile, even a deadly snake.  Shooting a bear out of season for any reason, would be very expensive and may even cause jail time.

The bear indeed may return, but he is going to find hives locked up even tighter than his orginial visit.

Thanks for all the post.

[iddee]

The strict law is the reason for rock salt. Hard to convict a man if there is no lead, but the salt tells the bear the area isn't a good place to dine.

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

You betya ID.  I don?t have reloading equipment for shotshells, so no rock salt, strappes first, then electric fence will be my next defense.  I sold my arsenal when I moved from Montana to Arkansas.  I kept 22 calibers, that is it.  I have a dog, rescued pup that is a whopper: 10 pounds of cuttie.

Very dry year in Arkansas, never seen bears at this location past 8 years.  This is Oak country and acorns are in short supply this year.

[Ben Framed]

I disagree because the more you shoot the more they will come.  It is not the answer.  Put up an
electric fence will deter them since you have so many hives on the same location.  If you cannot move them to
another location then you have to protect them this winter.   The bear will not give up that easily now that they found your
hives.  These are hungry bears.  Deter and protect the hives!

beepro, I answered his post at 10 pm last night. Do you really believe he would  have time to go out and buy electric fencing materiel at that time of night , even if he could find a place that was open?  Goodness man!!!! At 10 pm there is only one option.. well two. He could either say Mr Bear, bee pro doesn't want me to shoot you so please go away. Or he could and should protect  his Propetry. Now, today is a different matter. I'm sure Mr Van has time to gather the needed supplies to build an excellent fence.

[Beeboy01]

If you go the rock salt route mix in some hot pepper powder like a chili or habenaro powder. It makes the sting a bit more real.

[Acebird]

Van, did you see this bear?  Bears usually bust up the hive into pieces.  Straps are child's play for a bear.