We have a bear

[calamtykel]

We've always had "visible" bears here in Norther NJ. It's not uncommon to see them crossing the property in the early morning or evening. We've never had a problem with them with the chickens though (knock wood!) Mostly they are looking for garbage - so keep your feeders in at night, keep cat and dog food in at night and put your garbage in a garage.

 

[peggym]

Yeah bears are sneaky!! I'm in NY not far from Chenago forkss, and my dad was in his garage working on one of his many tractors, his dog started acting funny so he turned around and there was a bear standing about five foot from him, it ran off but made my dad pretty nervous for a while!!!!

 

[Dora'smom]

I don't know how often black bears are an issue here, but years ago my family was camping in Canada. We were in the Selkirk mountains, and got to know some of the park naturalists, and went on hikes with them. The day we left the park, and traveled eastward, one of the naturalists was hiking off the road a few miles from camp when she and her fiancee accidentally came between a mother grizzly and cubs. The bear killed the naturalist, and severely mauled her fiancee. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Even to those who know more than the average person.

 

[morelcabin]

I live in Moose and bear country too, and I have to say that moose probably scare me more than bears. Bears will 99.999% of the time leave humans alone. I have run into a few...just last week we had a bear cub crying out about 300 ft behind our house (and we currently live in a subdivision) Be respectful of them and they will most often be respectful of you.

 

[curliet]

Kat, we have bears as well. The biggest problem we ever had with one was our own fault. We were going to be gone for a few days and I put an extra feeder in for the chickens. I didn't want to crowd the coop and make it hard for the chooks to get down from the roosts, so I put it out into the run. Actually hung it from the roof in a corner where I could get at it easily. Mr (or Ms) bear ripped the
fencing and run all apart and pulled the feeder outside the run, emptied the feeder and left. The chooks were all safe, frightened to pieces, in the coop when I got home. I actually think, from the way things looked that it had happened just before I got there.

Anyway, from the experiences that I've had with bears I would say that they are much more afraid of me than I am of them. If I speak up loudly to them, firmly, they turn around and go away. The dog barking makes them run fast. They really don't seem to be as interested in the chickens as they are the feed, so I've learned to keep that locked in a very safe place. I'm not an expert, but I do think that with bears you can feel like you have the upper hand more often than not.

Margie, thank you for posting that link, Lynne Rogers is a great bear expert and I really respect his work. I've seen some of his documentaries regarding bears, and think it's wonderful that he knows how to encourage them to trust him. My feeling is that science is totally overlooking the bear when they look for that hidden link between animals and man. I could go on and on but....