Freaking bears!

[chickengeorgeto]

if bears are visiting often a feller can rub peanut butter or put a sardine on their electric fence wire so the bears will try to lick... it off.

As several on here have indicated, moisture multiplies the effect of electric fences. Therefor the saliva in a bear's mouth would LIGHT him up.

 

[Triple Willow]

That's funny! Shock therapy! LOL I remember when I was about five years old we had some goats that wouldn't stay in a fence so we put up an electric fence. Somebody got a little bunch of green leaves off of a tree and hung them on the fence. Everybody was waiting for a goat to take a bite. Well I had to pee so I was headed to the house. They kept telling me to watch because the goat was about to get it. Well I really had to pee so I was walking backwards headed toward the house while watching the action. Well it just so happened that there was a water trough that had been made out of an old hot water heater cut down the middle. I fell backwards right in the water trough! I was so little I was soaked about from the back of my knees up to my shoulders. It was even worse because I already had to pee! I remember that like it was yesterday! LOL I guess it served me right.

 

[Triple Willow]

I have heard about boys being talked into peeing on a hot wire. I can't imagine! LOL

 

[Triple Willow]

When I was little my big brothers conned me into grabbing onto the electric wire that surrounded the cow pasture. I haven't touched an electric fence since! They still get a giggle out of the story and love relating it to everyone!

Electric fences start to make you kind of nervous huh? LOL I have heard of several kids getting in a line side by side and holding hands then one kid on one end grabbing the wire then the one on the other end gets the majority of the shock. Kids are mean to each other. lol

 

[Jessica Lynn]

Electric fences start to make you kind of nervous huh? LOL I have heard of several kids getting in a line side by side and holding hands then one kid on one end grabbing the wire then the one on the other end gets the majority of the shock. Kids are mean to each other. lol

They sound like my brothers!

 

[ampho]

How do you know it was the bear that got your chicken? Just curious. We are just finishing our coop, chicks due in 2 weeks, and have many bears here. The people near us with chickens have not had an issue with the bears bothering their chickens yet, but I am nervous, we plan to put at least a 3 wire electric setup around the run, and will let them out in the yard (initially anyway) only when we are home. (If I put bird seed that has peanuts in it out, the bears are there within an hour) Here are two yearlings that hung around most of the day two weeks ago! I am told the bears are more interested in the chicken feed than the chickens themselves, but from reading these posts, that doesn't seem to be true!

 

[wncpalm]

You are right about bears (at least black bears) being more interested in chicken food than chickens (see post # 21 above). So be sure to store your food in a secure location and preferably separate from the chickens themselves.

But if a particular bear develops a "taste" for chickens as a food item, it can do a lot of damage to your facilities and your poultry. Your facility sounds pretty secure for most predators, but do give some attention to preventing going under as well as over. I had a chicken wire apron in the case above which worked for racoons for over a decade. But now I have a WSW apron all around.

 

[Triple Willow]

You are right about bears (at least black bears) being more interested in chicken food than chickens (see post # 21 above). So be sure to store your food in a secure location and preferably separate from the chickens themselves.

But if a particular bear develops a "taste" for chickens as a food item, it can do a lot of damage to your facilities and your poultry. Your facility sounds pretty secure for most predators, but do give some attention to preventing going under as well as over. I had a chicken wire apron in the case above which worked for racoons for over a decade. But now I have a WSW apron all around.

What is WSW? Are you allowed to hunt bears where you live?

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Do think about what I am about to post.

You can absolutely hurt a bear one time and you can hurt it twice if the Game Warden doesn't find out about you hurting it the first time.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Every year in the Great Smokey Mountains National Parks some Pilgrim gets him or her self in trouble with the park rangers by running in and trying to "rescue" a deer fawn from the picnic basket of a black bear.

Bears are natures' premier omnivore. If a bear can get it to go in one end, then digest it and finally make it come out the 'other' end, a bear will definitely eat it. About 5 years ago I watched a black bear eat a large yellow jacket nest in Cade's Cove, sting, buzz, hum, and all. It didn't take him long to choke it down either. That bugger could dig like a coal excavator. Just you wait till he finds out that chicken tastes just like chicken feed.