The Bearproofing test and Project - Plansand parts picture posted

[Aust1227]

Humph... No activity in the yard.. We got a nice pic of a stray dog getting his nose zapped...

What the hell does it take to bate a bear these days?

Any Mainers here want to weigh in on the subject? Or is it illegal now?!?!?

 

[minnehaha]

Waiting patiently.....in the meantime, I wouldn't mind seeing the dog picture.

 

[aart]

Humph... No activity in the yard.. We got a nice pic of a stray dog getting his nose zapped...

What the hell does it take to bate a bear these days?

Any Mainers here want to weigh in on the subject? Or is it illegal now?!?!?

I've read that hanging piece of bacon on the wire itself is a good 'training' technique.

Great thread, I love a good experiment...wishing you the best of luck and technique discovery!

@Aust1227 did you see my suggestion?

 

[gawildlife]

You can have all the "technical" information in the world, and it won't do you a bit of good unless it's PRACTICAL.

I have going on seven years heavy-duty experience with bears lusting after my chickens. A lot of this involves close observation and close interaction of and with bears.

I can boil it down to one thing: a hot wire, no matter the volts or how many strands, is going to do anything to deter bears unless the wires are up against an impassable surface. This means a bear will jump over or between strands of hot wire, not even feeling the charge through his thick fur. But if you install the hot wire at nose level against a solid surface, and at the top of a fence, the bear will first test the wire with his nose or tongue, thus the purpose of the peanut butter, because they need to "research" where they intend to be going.

I've watched a bear jump gracefully between the two strands of hot wire I run around the far perimeter to keep cattle away from my buildings, and not even touch it. But I've seen a bear encounter the peanut butter on a wire that's against the garden fencing and get a jolt and run off.

I haven't had any penetration of my run or coops or gardens by bears since I've employed the hot wire close against these enclosures.

This is the reason cattle panels are recommended being semi solid and of a mesh that prevents penetration. The jumping over aspect may call for taller panels. It is also recommended that bears need to be "taught" by baiting the fence with bacon or peanut butter. A good friend of min hauls bees to south georgia for tupelo and gallberry early in the season, parks them on melons in central georgia then into the north georgia mountains for sourwood. He has bears in all three locations and his solution is having his hives on a trailer and the trailer has six foot sidewalls and rear doors all out of welded cattle panels. When he drops the trailer he sinks a ground rod and hooks up a solar charger and juices the entire trailer.
Fortunately here just south of Hotlanta we don't have bears, YET. They're within forty miles of me north and south so it's only a matter of time.

 

[Aust1227]

Mr. Bear finally came back last night!! But rather than the test plot in the front yard, he attacked the turkey coop again..




This time we heard him, and our attention and loud noises stopped him mid attack. He managed to rip the plywood off off of the frame, and was in the process of working his way through the fence (the last line of defense).

I saw him at least.. From a distance , in the dark.. Big black bear.

Tonight we will install the electric fence around the turkey enclosure.. And over the next free weekend we will include the entire yard in wire..

 

[tcstoehr]

I guess the camera wasn't pointed at the right area for a picture. Seems like that bear was just unwrapping a package, with a tasty treat inside.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

As a beekeeper I am somewhat familiar with bear problems. The best set up recommended by many uses cattle panels for the fencing. Using panels and fiberglass sucker rods you can make a quickly assembled and somewhat portable fencing system. Here's an article discussing the fence I'm talking about.

http://www.kencove.com/fence/76_Bear+Fence_resource.php

As the old question asks, "Where do bears sleep?" Why they sleep in the Woods. Therefor a bear has a long thick fur coat to keep him warm while he snoozes in the forest. This fur coat also protects bears from skin contact with electric fences. Thus you can see how one poster says that bears learn how to slip between the hot wires to no good effect.

If an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure why not educate bears to the power of an electric fence and hopefully convince him to raid the local KFC franchise the next time that he gets a hankering for a chicken dinner. First ground your charger and fence well and then use some well cured salted bacon wound securely around the electric fence. Salt is a fine conductor of electricity and the first time that your bear's wet nose, lips, and tongue comes into contact with the salted bacon your bruin will learn a lesson about the unseen power of chickens and turkey's that he will not soon forget.

Just remember to post a video of this 'shocking' event.

 

[Aust1227]

The turkey coop has been wired... here are the pictures. We installed the yellow 2" insullators on top of the OSB, which is over the fence that wraps the turkeys. We will be picking up bacon tomorrow.

The game camera is trained on the turkeys tonight. The turkeys free range all day, the only sleep in this little plywood shack.



The controller is inside the bucket. We will hard wire it from the chicken coop later, but right now we had to settle for an extension cord out to the turkey area.


Three strands of braided poly..




Bacon tomorrow..

 

[Charm1704]

I hope it works....I'll be watching!

........~Charm1704

 

[Aust1227]

Do you want the good news, or the bad news?

Good news first!! The turkeys appear to be safe. We baited the wire with bacon, and believe the bacon was eaten on Monday night.. We have four HORRIBLE sets of pictures from the field cam over the course of 10'.. It appears that a black blob was approaching and retreating from the fence..

The bad news..

Tuesday night Mr. Bear returned.. He busted out the hardware cloth over a window on our chicken coop. He scaled the wall and left through the pop door, then ran out through the fenced in run.. He more than doubled the size of the pop door with his brute force.. He got three chickens.




Fast forward to wednesday afternoon.. we electrified the chicken coop..

Wednesday night.. After being thwarted at his favorite two restraunts (the turkey pen, and the chicken coop). Mr Bear got bolder than ever and attacked "the Fry Pan".. The fry pan is hosted in an 8X8 building constructed of hardi board. He probed it for a little while, but decided busting straight through the side was his best option.. he got two chickens.




To make matters worse, when he left the yard he decided to run straight through BOTH SIDES of the fry pans run area..



Obviously tonight we will be electrifying outside of this building. And this weekend we will finally have enough daylight to run the perimiter of the entire area. This is getting very frustrating.

we called FWC last night. The Fry Pan is only 20' from our kitchen window. that is a little too close for comfort.