Bear demolishes chicken coop

[columbiacritter]

If you put up the electric fence it should be a about bear nose high, not up enough they can slide under it easily. REMEMBER bear nose high is about crotch level to an average man and your pants make that a little lower so when attempting to step over a live fence hike 'em up or risk the family jewels.

I watched it happen, I laughed so hard I was on the ground, so was he, but not laughing.

 

[bryan99705]

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Remember, a lot of times a bear goes crazy when you shoot it and will destroy anything in the area as they die. If you shoot, you may want him clear of your coop and run before you fire so you don't have to rebuild totally

 

[bryan99705]

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Straddling a live wire carelessly is like relieving yourself on one, you only need one lesson

 

[Equus5O]

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I feel your pain. I lost my flock in April to bears. The door was torn off of the coop, from the hinge side. I recently brought home 20 pullets. As I was buying them, my husband was putting the finishing touches on the electric fence. It's really the only thing that has a chance at stopping a bear. I was talking to a woman the day I bought the pullets, and she was telling my how she just fortified her run with wood and chain link. She wasn't buying it that chain link won't stop a bear. Live and learn, I guess. Good luck

 

[wyoDreamer]

Electric fence may be your only option.

Bear are a game animal, and the states make big money by selling liscences to hunters, so it is very unlikely that they will let someone just shoot a bear because it comes into their yard after chickens.

When I was working for the County Conservation Division back in Wisconsin, we worked with a guy who had honey bee hives that were being destroyed by bears. We helped him install a 4 wire electric fence around his hives to protect them. 4 wires so that during the fall, winter and spring, if there is snow on the ground (northern WI) then the bottom and second to top wire were disconnected from the charger, and connected to the grounding rod to make sure the bear was grounded as it tried to crawl thru the fence (snow will prevent an animal from being grounded and you need to be grounded to get a shock. This was a simple fence, 4 wires attached to 4 fiberglass fenceposts that extend 6' high, all attached to a fence charger, his was solar because it was out in the middle of nowhere, where the farm fields were. Since he only attended to his hives occationally, he would turn off the fence, disconnect two of the wires and climb through the fence, probably not an option for you.

Maybe the local conservation service would be able to at least help you figure out how to build an electric fence to keep the bear out. Contact the local county conservation office, or the state division that works with farmers or even the Natural Resources Conservation Service ( the NRCS is the federal program) and see if they can help you come up with a design that might work. These agencies work with farmers and I'm sure they have had to deal with bears.

If you use ribbon fencing ( the wires are woven into a flat plastic ribbon to make it more visible), peanut butter on the ribbon will get them to taste the electric fence!

 

[cindy99]

My mother who lives just up the road from me got this pic on her gamecam - she went right out the next day and bought electric fence. The bear must have come back one more time as the fence was shorted out - no more after that though!

 

[Pele]

I'm sorry to hear about how much grief you've gone through over this bear!

You have several options that havn't already been mentioned that you might want to explore.

One option (and the least expensive) is to look into any kind of bear relocation programs in your state. I know that Louisiana has a very good program. However not all states have one (such as CA).

Another option is to hook up a motion sensitive device that turns on a really loud high-pitched siren and lights when activated. That would scare the bajesus out of the bear, and hopefully convince him that your house is inhabited by bear-eating monsters. This would have the side-benefit of alerting you of a possible coop raid before it happens.

As far as shooting the bear, if it's not legal in your area, you'd be facing a lot of fines/jail time. I would recommend Bear Mace instead if you are wanting to go toe to toe with it (which I personally never would). I don't know if it would completely put him off your house though when you're not around.

Hope some of this helps you!

 

[panner123]

Now we all know that those sweet, cute little bears do no damage. Yup, an electric fence will slow they down, but a well placed 30/06 will end your problem for good. Everyone wants to relocate their problem on someone else, but the truth of it is most trapped bears are not relocated.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I know of at least one person who recommended electric barbed wire for bears. Good luck. I'm not sure there is much that will stop a determined bruin that has already had a food reward.

 

[tomingreeneco]

Children in the yard? A .460 Weatherby Magnum will take care of the problem. NO MORE BEAR!