Freaking bears!

[JPoe]

I also live in the Springs cosbackyard. So sorry about your loss! I had my ladies free ranging today and heard a commotion and ran to check on them. A young bear chased my RIR back into her run and killed her before I could figure out how to stop it. =[ This bear paid zero attention to us and went right ahead eating my poor girl not 10 yards from me. My fiance threw a big rock at the bear's head and it finally ran off... but not very far. We went to bury the hen and the bear was sitting in a tree nearby growling at us. Apparently other neighbors have had trouble with this particular bear but the police and wildlife officials say they won't do anything unless it threatens people. Grrr! No sign of the bear's mother either.

 

[cosbackyard]

Sorry to hear about your hen, JPoe. I'm surprised to hear that police and wildlife wouldn't do anything about it. Apparently they were both in my yard when the bear came through and I'm not sure if they caught it or just chased it off.

From what I've seen of bears, and we see alot of them over by garden of the gods, they normally run away from people. That you had to work so hard to chase it off is troubling. Its also strange to see them around mid-day.

On a side note - the bear that ate one of mine was also young.

 

[JPoe]

I live right next to Garden of the Gods, too! And I've never seen a bear as stubborn and unafraid as this one. Sounds like we might have the same pest. I'm guessing he has been having trouble finding food higher up in the woods and our ladies are just too tempting. I have another call into the DOW so maybe I'll hear back from them soon.

 

[cosbackyard]

I wish you luck!
I'm finishing a six foot fence around the yard after the attack. It may not stop a bear, but as you know many of the fences in this neighborhood are 3' high and won't even slow one down. Any deterrent will help. If I see that bear again I'll call DOW as well.

 

[Zombified]

Sorry for your losses. ):

I have to say, with a good guard dog(mine is an Akita Inu/Siberian Husky mix; not a trained guard/livestock dog, but good enough for our preds.) nothing has even looked at our ducks. I was thinking, if you've got the time, money, and patience, a trained Karelian Bear Dog might be a pretty good idea to scare off any bears - or any other predators.

Whenever my Lobo passes on and we all move out on a farm, I plan on investing in a Great Pyrenees.

 

[Greg in Carpinteria]

I have had bear issues in the past and added a hot wire to my fence, strung 8" and 4' off the ground. It seems to be working, the bear still comes around but the only thing he is eating now are avocados.

Good luck with whatever approach you take.

 

[cosbackyard]

Thanks for all the tips. I have had a bear return since but he left my coop and run alone. The new fence is almost complete and hopefully that will deter them enough. I'd love a dog but our last one we couldn't keep off the chickens.

 

[Valk]

I live in southwest Colorado and we have a many bears come through our yard. I built my chicken coop to withstand bears by trimming it with tack strip used for carpeting your floors. They will try to literally rip the sheeting off the coop, but the tack strip deters them by poking their paws with countless miniature spikes. I bought a box of 100 4' long strips and used all of them. It looks pretty Medieval, but it works, and you can paint them. We use this method to deter them from our trash shed, it has been 100% successful. Good luck to you!

 

[Zombified]

Oh yikes. That does look pretty midieval lol. Those little spikes suck to step on. These are probably cheaper that electric fencing, yeah?

 

[Valk]

We are installing electric fencing too, in fact, I'm leaving to go pick it up now. We live in a forested and relatively secluded canyon with many critters that would LOVE to eat our chickens. I intend on taking every measure possible in keeping our chickens safe. It's our first year with chickens and I want to do my best! I also buried the tack strip about 6" deep, or half way down, along my underground fence. We'll see if that helps at all.

And yes, if you're not paying attention to where you lay your hand, it'll get ya!