South Florida Black Bears vs. Chickens & Coops

[chickortreat]

Completely understand, but, I love my job, and would lose it in a New York minute if I did.

How would you lose your job over killing a bear that was destroying your property/livestock?

 

[Fire-Chicken]

Because its not my livelihood, I'm not farming for sale of goods to support my family, and I'm not deeded as agricultural. It's just considered recreational, and, they are protected and can only be removed by Fish and Game Feds, if they become too much of a nuisance. Too myself and the rest of the neighborhood, they have, but not to the Feds.

 

[chickortreat]

Farming isn't my livelihood either, but if I see a bear around my chicken coop, I'll be skinning him directly. Alabama has no open season for them either.

 

[Fire-Chicken]

Yeah, Jim, you've got a bear, or, two...
Sorry, I feel your pain!

Fire-chicken

 

[cchardwick]

I can tell you right now that your coop isn't bear proof. They could rip that thing to shreads if they wanted too. I had a huge bear problem up here in Colorado and they would rip the doors right off my barn and even tear apart my chain link runs. They are super strong. One year they ate my whole flock in just two days, that was 45 chickens! I finally got three llamas and never had a problem since. Not sure if you can have a llama or two but they are fantastic at protecting chickens. They will chase them down and spit at them and their spit really stinks like a skunk! I got all three of my llamas for free and with hay prices so high right now you can get all you want for little or nothing, at least until it's time to buy the hay! I go through about 1.5 bales of hay per week for all three, much less than a horse will eat.

 

[J-Sanders]

Unless, that Llama is carrying a 30-06 or more he won't stop a determined bear. He will be the main course and the chickens are a snack. Our bears don't get as large as they do in CO. And we don't get the grizzly type either. I have sat on my porch and watched a mother a her cubs shred a 20 inch rotted pine log eating grubs. I have no doubts that they will get into just about anything. But we do have a pretty neat trash can that has foiled their attempts so far. They do drag it around quite a bit but haven't gotten into it yet. This was after the first attempt. The can does not look this nice today...

 

[chickortreat]

Not to mention, hunting is fun, and a rifle is cheaper than a llama, unless one goes all-out on it.....

 

[centrarchid]

Could black bear be repelled by smearing parts of coop it tries to get into wth a mixture of ground chili pepper and oil? Like when bear tearing into a wrotten log for insects, it will be sniffing and licking as it goes. If bears can taste the stuff, then it might put critter off from trying to break in. Would be cheap to try and pepper spray is used as an emergency bear repellent with some effect.

 

[Fire-Chicken]

To anyone with inquisitive minds...

I successfully bought an electric fence system for my coop, to keep bears, raccoons, and bobcats out. I bought it from Zareba Systems. They are a VERY VERY AWSOME company to deal with. I highly recommend them. It cost me a total of $100 to fence the coop.

The fence is rated for 20 acres. My coop is about 25 yards from the house, and I have about 75 feet of wire wrapped, 2 wraps near the bottom and one near the top. The fence system will wallop you with one hell of an electrical punch ( it's rated for bulls and cows).

In conclusion, anyone with problems with predators entering your coop (fully enclosed or not), this is the way to go. Just don't forget to disconnect the fence, at the switch, before entering to collect the days' harvest. Otherwise, you'll receive one hell of a reminder!

Good luck! Any questions, please feel free to ask me.

Fire-chicken
South Sunny Florida

 

[Trefoil]

Thanks Fire chicken for the reminder. The DNR suggested that last year to a fellow guinea keeper for bear protection and they also reported that it does work. A reminder for those new to electric fence. The better the ground, the better the jolt.