I feel awful...

[Mtnboomer]

I am in northern Michigan about 30 miles from the poster.
I only posted the bear picture to show the kinds of things you may capture on your camera that you might not expect.
I was standing in the woods on that trail scrolling through the pictures and that picture made me JUMP and quickly look behind me! Spooked me something awful. I had other cameras farther out (we have 98 acres), but I quickly walked back to the house and got our 3 dogs, The pepper spray, the hand held boat horn, the cell phone and my 18 year old daughter for backup, just in case.
as far as chickens go the bears do not bother them. Our neighbor close by has an awful time keeping them out of his bee hives. He has 6 strand high powered electrical fence and some mornings it looks like a herd of buffalo stampeded through it. They are quite motivated when it comes to honey.

I dont blame ya! Thats a nice bear. They like chicken meat in VA. The first yr i built the coop a bear pulled the wire out of the windows. We have them snoop through the yard regularly with tracks and scat near the coops and ckaw marks in the wood. No entries yet. They are ever present but rarely a real threat to us

 

[ChicNmom]

We use inexpensive home security cams from Harbor Freight. My husband works from home and can monitor the yard from his desk and be outside quickly if the chickens need defending.

It's been very helpful. Especially for areas not clearly seen from a window.

So sorry about your girls.

 

[cmom]

I love my electric wires. I think mine would keep a bear away. A decent fence charger that puts out around 7000 volts will keep most predators away. I accidentally touched my wires and it really hurt. I was hurting for a couple of days. I have two feet on the ground a bear or other predator would have usually four feet on the ground so should really feel the zap.

 

[cmom]

Once a predator tests the wires they don't usually test them again. I have heard predators, but they aren't aware of the wires until they touch them and it's probably a predator that may be new to the area. A couple of months ago I had been seeing a fox, a coyote and a bobcat on my cameras. One of them connected with the wires around midnight one night. I could hear it. It was quite loud and sounded very startled. I have several cameras. There are bears but I never seen one around here but Florida does have a hunting season with a quota. Once the quota is met or season ends, it ends.