I never shared my BEAR pics!

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

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Yeah I didn't know either! I guess last year (maybe more recent) someone up in feather falls got on a trail cam a whole pack of mountain lions together. I think a total of 7. Scary!! I havent had them come my way yet.. dogs, cayotes, fox, and hawks are my biggest problem. Besides ole smokey here!

 

[Capvin]

Crazycat: Please be asured that I am not passing judgement on your good judgement to shoot a bear that had gotten too used to your property. I am certain that in that instance you did the right thing. However, in my experience I really do think you are going to see more bears and I was just trying to give an alternative because I thought that you already had an electric fence controller, which is the most expensive part. The major problem with your setup is that the electric fence is too close to the coop. The bear gets that close and he can not help himself but to get at your chickens. In fact a normal bear could just take one swipe and knock the whole thing down. My suggestion was to use the same controller but put the wires around the perimeter using posts. And I am also sorry if you thought I indicated that you considered shooting every bear that came around. From your story I would believe the contrary. It seemed you were quite reluctant for a long time and only did what you felt was necessary in the end. From the posts that I read here there are quite a lot of us who have bears in our areas and was am really hopeful that others would consider using a bear deterent fence because, in my experience, they work. Good luck in the future and believe me, I know how you feel because I would hate to lose any one of my chickens for any reason.

 

[harveyhorses]

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Are they sure it wasn't the same bear 4 years in a row?

 

[TedJan92_in_Idaho]

Up here bears are more of a problem than coons. I see more bears than coons and eat more bear sausage than pork. Once they taste chicken they will hang around until you get them or the chicken runs out

 

[Gerry2011]

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Are they sure it wasn't the same bear 4 years in a row?

That is entirely possible!

Actually they did know they were different bears. I'd almost swear our g&f guys could id every deer, elk and bear in their district. We went to see a couple of them and even we could see they were different.

 

[Moonkit]

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In her post, she stated she already tried using hot wires and reinforcing her coop to deter this bear, along with several instances of "warning" shots. The bear didn't get the clue. She didn't just see the bear and immediately go for the gun/kill-shot.

 

[harveyhorses]

Quote:
Are they sure it wasn't the same bear 4 years in a row?

That is entirely possible!

Actually they did know they were different bears. I'd almost swear our g&f guys could id every deer, elk and bear in their district. We went to see a couple of them and even we could see they were different.

One of my friends had been 'relocating' a squirrel, driving down the road a ways, a couple of miles, until she started noticing it WAS the same one, and the road curved right around to the back of her land. She is a slow learner, I said it just liked the car ride.

 

[Gerry2011]

Quote:

That is entirely possible!

Actually they did know they were different bears. I'd almost swear our g&f guys could id every deer, elk and bear in their district. We went to see a couple of them and even we could see they were different.

One of my friends had been 'relocating' a squirrel, driving down the road a ways, a couple of miles, until she started noticing it WAS the same one, and the road curved right around to the back of her land. She is a slow learner, I said it just liked the car ride.

 

[Ole rooster]

Some aren't slow learners, they never learn. Shooting the bear is sad. I would not care to be put in your situation. But it's up to you and only you to protect what's yours. The chickens have no defense against the bear. Nor the coon and possum. That's why we shoot them. The bear was just in the wrong position and paid. You did right.

 

[mediazeal]

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This is an awesome set up and I'm always so glad to see someone protecting their chickens vs just killing every predator type they see without doing what they can first.
I have heard that it helps to use barbed wire as it reached through the fur on bears better than the regular line
I had a friend who used to hang a piece of bacon on the line to get the bear to touch it with his nose first and make the point of 'don't touch this'

good luck