A few weeks ago, after we harvested our honey for the year, a bear decided to pay a visit to our only remaining hive. We lost a hive to a bear a couple of years ago, and now this. I don’t know if it’s coincidence, or does our electric fence really work against the bears. The first time, the fence was not charged because we had had about 7 -10 days of mainly cloudy days and the solar charger ran out of juice, and this time, I had taken the fence down and was in the process of expanding the bee area in anticipation of splitting our hive, and adding more next spring. I had all the posts in and the platforms set, but had not gotten the fence back up, and, yep, here comes the bear. Kind of scary because it hit in the morning, Pat had seen the hive in the morning and all was fine, and then around noon she happened to notice the the hive was knocked over (maybe Pat needs to become a gun toten farmer chick!) Upon checking more closely, it was obvious a bear had happened by. When I got home, we set the main body back up to the right of where it had been, most of the bees were still in the main body, the bear had gone for the top super and dragged it to edge of the woods. We added sugar water in hopes the hive would be able to recover. I did not have time to do the fence still. Next day, the bear came back and pretty much finished destoying the hive body. Many of the bees hung around for about a day or two, and moved on to a new home somewhere. I guess we will have to start over AGAIN with bees next spring, and the electric fence will be up before we get them.
So sorry to hear about your bees! We just lost our urban hive to a bear. http://ashevilleyardfarmer.com/
It’s sad — but I want to try again next spring too! Good luck to you too!
Yes, it is sad, I just read your posts too. We have completed our new electric fence, and Pat has ordered 2 new hives for the spring, so we will give it another go. I love having the bees here. I hope this fence works.
Frank