Bears???

I know worried me too since our bird feeders are right down here by the house and their fenced in property. But even when they climbed the fence to get to the bird feeders they never messed with the coops [no damage] After one destroyed out trash can my dh built a big wooden box with a lid to contain the trash and I haven't lost another bird feeders now that I don't leave them up over night. But they destroyed our welded wire fencing so we ended up putting up no climb horse fencing and that keeps them from climbing over the fence. This was taken off our game camera right on our spring road. the fencing for the birds runs along this. This was last year we just didn't set the date so it says 2014. View attachment 1393583 This is a young bear too.
Beautiful picture!!! But scary
 
Wow that is a really nice pic! So the reason this is coming up today is because a bear stole one of my feeders last night. Usually they just knock them down and eat in the Spring and I know it's time to start taking them down at night. This bear actually took the feeder - i can't find it anywhere. I moved the feeders up really high this year and since i hadn't had a problem yet I thought they were high enough. The bottom of the feeder had to be 9 feet high. There is no deterring a hungry bear.
 
I have suffered several bear attacks on my chickens. Lost many before I finally got my coop to a state of being 'bearproof' hopefully. Electric fencing is very effective. The bear has nice big padded feet with a large surface area touching the ground so they suffer a healthy whack from the fence when they touch it. Once touched, they can sense when it is on, and avoid it. Several runs of the fence are ideal, I have 4.
Hardware cloth is pretty easy for a bear to tear through, especially if really motivated. If you can, get some steel cattle panel fencing and cut it to your specifications and then secure it with either special brackets or very big staples and put this over your hardware cloth.
I know this may seem like overkill but these beasts are really strong and if they want in to your ducks, they are going to do their best to get them. Good luck!!
 
I have suffered several bear attacks on my chickens. Lost many before I finally got my coop to a state of being 'bearproof' hopefully. Electric fencing is very effective. The bear has nice big padded feet with a large surface area touching the ground so they suffer a healthy whack from the fence when they touch it. Once touched, they can sense when it is on, and avoid it. Several runs of the fence are ideal, I have 4.
Hardware cloth is pretty easy for a bear to tear through, especially if really motivated. If you can, get some steel cattle panel fencing and cut it to your specifications and then secure it with either special brackets or very big staples and put this over your hardware cloth.
I know this may seem like overkill but these beasts are really strong and if they want in to your ducks, they are going to do their best to get them. Good luck!!

That's a great idea! Yet another project for me - i swear i will never be done building this duck pen :thI"m sorry about all of your 'lost' chicks too.... :hugs
 
That's a great idea! Yet another project for me - i swear i will never be done building this duck pen :thI"m sorry about all of your 'lost' chicks too.... :hugs
Yes, projects abound!! It will be worth it though, there is nothing more heartbreaking than finding your babies either reduced to a pile of feathers or shredded to pieces.. and the structure torn up also! The last bear we had got so brave that she actually got into my car and stole my groceries. The following day, I drove up my driveway and saw her just sitting outside the fence of my coop trying to figure out how to harvest some more of my babies and I got out of my car and was yelling at her and she ran off. My hubby was up hiking and actually heard me yelling, came running down the hill, got his rifle and killed her.
Now, I am not a fan of killing predators in general but she had become a serious potential hazard especially as I have children, well, teenagers but still.....
 
We had a huge blk bear that would sit up on our spring road and wait till dark to come over the fence to get to the bird feeders. I wish I had gotten a pic of that one My dh shot at it with the shot gun and we could hear it running up through the woods . They can get so brave.
 
View attachment 1393655 View attachment 1393660 I had to dig deep in my pic files to find this from last year - it's the only bear we've ever had during the day. He was young and injured, so he didn't move on after coming out of hibernation like the others have done. He pretty much stayed all summer... The WL folks tried to catch him but that was a fail - even with salmon in the trap, he was too smart to get in! By the end of the summer his leg was better and he was walking on it - we didn't see him again after that. Looking at this pic again, I think he'd have no problem crashing through my duck pen. Off to TSC to buy some electric fencing....

View attachment 1393660 View attachment 1393655
 
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