Do bear bother chickens?

[Orca]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the obvious (to me, at least): try not to attract them in the first place!! Pick your apples and get to any that fall right away (or cut down the trees if you don't want to bother), and don't put out bird seed until the bears go into hibernation. Avoid storing any types of feed (dog food, chicken feed, etc) where they can smell it, try not to leave your garbage out, etc. Electric fencing is a great idea (and will keep out lots of other predators as well).

Not sure where you are, but where I am (BC, Canada), we can get charged just for attracting bears - especially if a conservation officer has to come out and deal with a problem.

Good luck!

ETA: I know sometimes even if you do all that you can, if your neighbors are being irresponsible you might get bears anyway. In that case, maybe there's someone you can call to come and speak to them? (Is it Fish and Wildlife in the US? or do you have conservation officers there?)

 

[arch_cpj]

I am also on a beekeeping forum and a regular electric fence may not stop em if you are in a high bear area I reccommend you consider enclosing the entire chicken yard coop and all with 4-6 foot high tensile electric fence it is the best option to keep out bears... it is a good long term deterent and if you go with a 6 wire fence and a large low impedance fencer 100mile or larger youll have it covered...

 

[erin09]

Do bears bother chickens? HA!!!!

I awoke one 5am to find a bearstard IN my chicken coop having breakfast...5 feet from my bedroom that led outside. He pulled an entire wall off and climbed right in.

Electric the ONLY thing that will have a fighting chance of keeping your chicks safe. Hook it up and hang some bacon from the wire...bearstard will get a lil more than he bargained for!

 

[chicken911]

Thanks for all the help. Yes, we do stop feeding the birds and pick the apples in an attemps to decrease bear activity. Now we usually just see them passing through. As for shooting the bears, I kind of enjoy seeing them around occasionally as long as they are not causing too much damage. On top of that, I am a non-native american living within the bounderies of the reservation and would most likely need to get the tribe involved before I could shoot one legally, unless my family was in danger. As for the e-wire, will keep it in mind. If the chickens keep them around much, will need to invest. For now I will entrust my 3 dogs (2 border collies and a golden retriever) as a deterrent. I know they are no match for a determined bear, but they do create a rucuss and have chased most of the bears off the property in the past.

Thanks for all the responses,

Jason