Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

[Frozen Feathers]

Do-it-yourself fence charger.

 

[michaelvcrowder]

having a basic understanding of electricity and liability, i would hesitate to install a homebrewed electric fence charger. if someone actually got hurt with it the lawyers would never stop hounding you. you may want to check out this link. it has the specifications that the state of alaska recommends for electric fences used to deter bears.
michael

http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=bears.efences

 

[jadude]

I say call pros if it sets foot on your property and if the dony come shoot it

 

[kodiakchicken]

michaelvc...thanks. I understand the liability involved. I'm sure I'm going to end up buying a charger (unless the extra one at work can be used). I have actually installed a couple of electric fences around our remote camps, so I'm pretty familiar with the requirements. Bears are surprisingly easy to keep out with electric fences. I think its because they test everything with their noses or mouths - unlike livestock, which will lean against a fence.

jadude - unfortunately, bears living around people are forced into becoming nocturnal, and for such a big creature, they can be in, wipe out a coop, and back out before you know they're there. And besides, I don't want to shoot the bear. It's my responsibility to protect the chicken, not to punish the bear for just being himself.

 

[michaelvcrowder]

kodiakchicken,
sounds like you have a good handle on the requirements of your region and your responsibility. yeah, the bear is just being a bear. even though i live in georgia, i spend a good deal of time in grizzly and brown bear territory. on my farm we are having a big problem with local black bears. we have to remember that it is their land as much as ours and just shooting one does not keep the next one from doing the same thing.

i didn't know that bears dislike electricity so much. i have had lots of trouble with bears in climbing camps over the years. i am going to start looking at some of the solar electric fence solutions that may be portable enough to protect our base camps and a hardwired solution for the areas i need to protect on the farm. hope you work your deal out.
michael

 

[kodiakchicken]

Michael - portable electric fences have worked extremely well for hunters and backcountry users on grizzlies and brown bears. As we don't have black bears in Kodiak, I couldn't even begin to attest to the effectiveness. Animals can sense the electric pulse though, and bears by nature are pretty cautious. And, as I said, they test everything with their noses (unlike predators like raccoons, that touch with their paws) and a zap to the nose is one of the worst places to get hit. There are some great, portable electric fence set-ups out there now. Some of them are solar and some, like the one I'm using, actually run on 2 D size batteries. You wouldn't think that would work, but I had my hubby test it last night (

) and he said it provided enough shock. If that wasn't a good enough example our poor golden retreiver mix tried to climb through the fence after we turned it on. It took a second or two for it to penatrate all that hair, but once it hit her she took off like a shot. I was afraid she was going to tear the fence down!

I'm using the portable fence for now, but by the end of the week I'm going to replace it with electrified tape fencing. We did have a spare charger/converter in the storage unit and all I need it a 12V battery to run it. I can take one of my ATV until I can afford to buy one. Whew! Once again scrounging and saving has come to the rescue!

Thanks everyone for all your advice!

 

[thewarriorchild]

I wonder if a Tazer would work? If you search Tazer spelling it that way you could make one from a camera. Would it go through fur? I do not know anything about them.