okay so today we're going to talk about something pretty interesting as if it
wasn't bad enough that we've had a late freeze heavy winter lots of snow be
die-offs cold weather and everything else coming against the bees my apiary
was visited by a North American black bear and this hype number six here
you'll see has flashing lights on it he did not touch this hive but apparently
the rest of my apiary was fair game for the bear when it comes to black bears
there's not much it you're gonna do to stop them but we'll talk about some
measures that can be taken if you look at the landing board here on hive number
eight I have straps holding it down and a bear walked right up to that and just
snapped off that landing board so we know he's big and powerful and but
thanks to those shipping straps and the anchor is going into the ground there he
was unsuccessful in pulling over that hive however this hive did not fare so
well the good news is this is an empty hive there were no bees in it I just had
frames of honey stored in it and some pollen resources that I was going to
reuse chickens are out there of course inspecting everything first thing and my
dogs out there if this dog ever meets a bear in the woods he's just gonna die he
doesn't have the common sense to run away he's a Boston Terrier and he just
thinks he's as tough as anything in the wild this is a squirrel proof feeder
that's hanging on tree branch right about shoulder height and notice
how bent up it is that's because the bear was feeding out of it now we didn't
actually see the bear we just noticed all of the evidence that he had been
there we also know that he's fairly tall or he can stand up in order to feed out
of that feeder he didn't get it off the tree branch I hate to destroy it
obviously it's not going to be good as a funeral anymore with all the pent up
metal he was unsuccessful in getting it open it was securely attached to this
horizontal tree branch and he did not pull it down a little did
Bend up this support that it hangs from so we know that that works and an
Americana chicken just walking by there so it shows you how high it is and I
will share with you in advance that we're gonna see this bear again at the
end of this video and he tore off my theater here that I made probably 14 15
years ago these are also my squirrel-proof suet feeders and he tore
down the pole they were on and actually took the suet feeder out into the woods
and tried to get into it and that was unsuccessful so that's evidence those
are really well made and these are my woods this is also my property and bears
tend to follow trails this year because the weather has been so miserable a lot
of resources for the bears are absent in the environment so that has put pressure
on them to come out and visit feeders get closer to homes and of course in my
case visit my apiary and you can see that he pulled the corners right off of
these plastic bee frames and that's because he flipped a box upside down and
pulled him through backwards incredibly powerful he looked a lot of honey off he
ate away some of the pollen even and just wreaked havoc on it of course the
chickens are taking advantage of their opportunity now to come and feed on
these frames I put everything back as I said good news is he attacked a box that
was empty the bees are just cleaning resources from it here while it's open
but of course I closed everything back up but we have to do something in
preparation for his return if you know anything about bears they come back to
areas where they found resources in the past and they do it right away so I
expect him to come back tonight and this is a close-up of that landing board that
he tore off good news the hive is still intact he did not knock it over and I'm
showing you this feeder again and that's because I've decided that if he comes
back to this feeder I want to get video sequences of him and so I've taken a
game camera and I have mounted it to the tree adjacent to this feeder so the game
camera will be about four have feet pretty close for a game camera
but about four and a half feet from the feeder and if he comes back I'm gonna
get great video footage of him so another thing I have to do to protect
the bee yard I'm going to have to put up an electric fence that's we want layered
protection and it becomes back I haven't have this poultry netting it's all
electrified so each horizontal strand here has electricity going through it I
have a solar-powered electric fence energizer that I'm hooking up to it
right now if he comes back tonight I want him to be educated in a negative
way and I wanted to know that this be ours it's not something that he can
visit I also have another game camera there on the post in fact I put out four
game cameras on the apiary just because if he comes back I want to see his
reaction to the fence and of course the chickens were totally safe in their
coops they're in three different buildings all locked up secured at night
so even a bear would have a pretty good challenge getting in there they have
steel doors and so on and again just the last look here at my wild bird feeder
we're not gonna put any feet out we're gonna keep that restricted we're gonna
store everything at night and feed only during the day while the bear is around
here's a clip of close-up of my solar pack 12 this thing has a 30-mile range
and that means 30 miles of wire so there are nine strands horizontally in poultry
netting that's electrified so a 30-mile range charger is pretty good and of
course this is what the flashing red lights look like and remember the high
that he did tear down was without the benefit of these flashing lights so
that's another layer but I don't trust that as being enough so we're going with
that electric fence and if the bear returns tonight of course I'm gonna go
out there and make sure that he does not feel welcome and I want you to see what
this pair looks like
and sure enough there he is this is well away from the house
probably Oh 100 feet maybe and he's being videoed here by the game camera
that I attached to the tree and I want you to notice something he is actually
sitting on the ground and feeding from this world proof feeder there are only
you know maybe a couple teaspoons of black oil sunflower seeds left in there
and it's impressive to see how dexterous he is with his tongue and he can get
those seeds out and of course they're opportunistic feeders bears are
omnivores they'll eat animals they'll eat plants
eat seeds and nuts and again because we've had this terrible winter the Bears
are under pressure as our other wildlife animals here because they're resources
that they would normally have this time of year have not produced so they've
learned to visit houses and get into feeders and compost piles where people
made throw their food out and they're getting close to houses and that's not a
good thing so I need to go outside and motivate this bear to move on and make
sure he does not feel welcome on my property and you can see that he's got
his ears back he might be hearing me coming in the distance there and he
pauses to listen and he's about to be motivated to go somewhere else
and there you have it I gave him negative input there do not
go out and confront a bear if I do it it's on me I hope you keep your own bees
and chickens safe thanks for watching