Protecting Your Bees From Bears

Photo courtesy of Alex Few of Wildlife Services

My first bee venture started decades ago when I kept a few hives at my home outside of West Glacier, Montana. I knew bears could be an issue, but lived in denial and enjoyed trouble-free hives for several years. I should have taken the grizzly licking my barbecue grill on my porch one night as a clue that I needed to be proactive, but the bear destroyed the hives before I could pound a t-post. That learning experience made it clear that all bee yards should be fenced in bear country.

Bears looking for an easy meal

With more people keeping bees in bear country, it’s important to understand that having a bear destroy your hives not only ruins the colonies, it potentially sets up the bear for future trouble. They are ruled by their stomachs and unprotected hives are veritable bruin bento boxes. Unfortunately, this type of interaction with people usually ends up badly for the bears.

Black bears have long been in an issue in many parts of the West, and as grizzlies make their way into historical home ranges, people who’ve never dealt with these ingenious opportunists can be intimidated. Protecting a bee yard, whether it’s a couple hives or a big grouping, is a matter of making it an undesirable situation for the bears—a good dose of electricity typically does the trick.

A shocking solution

“Beekeepers are well ahead of the curve,” says Russ Talmo, the Rockies and Plains Program Associate for the Defenders of Wildlife in Missoula. “They have been dealing with these issues longer than others. They’ve been doing electric fence longer and better than most folks.

“Electric is exceptionally effective, like 99.9 percent effective,” said Alexandra Few, a wildlife biologist with USDA APHIS Wildlife Services in Billings, Montana, who conducted a project near Columbus setting up different styles of electric fence at Sunshine Apiary. “They get hit and move on.”

There are a number of ways to keep bears out of the bee yard using electric fence, as Few tested during her project. One option is the all-hot wired fence, using at least five electrified wires. According to a guide from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, this is best used in areas that have consistent soil moisture. More often, an alternating system using hot wires and ground wires is used, since it can be better grounded in dry or rocky soil. When a bear touches both a hot and grounded wire, it receives a dose of electricity.

When keeping bees in an area for a short time, where it wouldn’t be worth the effort to set up a fortified electric fencing ring, some beekeepers use electrified netting to discourage hungry visitors.

In some areas, the best combination to keep bears away, especially when large animals, such as cattle are present, is using some sort of barrier with the electric. Few says Sunshine employs rigid panels and electric since some of their bee yards are in grazing areas. This way the cattle, which are not known to always respect electric fences, don’t tear down the electric fence and push over the hives.

During their first year of keeping bees, Jennifer Quinn of Treasure State Honey in Fort Shaw, Montana, says a bear would come in and knock down a few hives, then eat a little bit before leaving. She would put the hives back together, just to have the bear return to the weakened colony to continue eating.

Quinn says bear are exceptionally smart when it comes to getting something they want.

Treasure State Honey ended up using a similar setup to the rigid panels to keep their hives safe. “What we ended up having to do is a use cow panels behind electric,” Quinn said.

Make sure there’s power behind the tough love

Sometimes people put up an electric fence and the bear doesn’t seem to care one bit.

“Bears are really robust animals and can take their lumps,” says Talmo “You want those fences to hit pretty hard.”

Few says, “It needs to have an output of a joule. If you go with a little horse fence, it’s not going to work for a grizzly.”

Talmo says the joules are like the horsepower behind the energizer. It doesn’t matter how many miles the energizer package says can be covered, it matters how big of a punch the energizer provides.

Think like a bear

Few cautions to make sure the fence isn’t touching any of the hives. Not only could this short out the fence, but having a hive within reach of the fence makes it too easy for a bear to reach out and snag one with a paw.

Quinn says they’ve had a bear reach in and knock over hives, and have since given the hives a wider buffer.

The bears typically won’t climb over a fence to reach those alluring hives, although it’s important to put the wires close enough together to ensure there is contact, in the chance they try to squeeze through. Few also said she heard of a bear tunneling underneath a fence, but for the most part, a burrowing grizzly isn’t an issue.

Make sure it’s grounded properly

One of the biggest challenges with electric fences in dry regions is not being well-grounded for a proper shock. To combat that, pound ground rods deeply into the soil. Sometimes it’s helpful to pour a bucket of water over the ground rod.

On the flip side, weeds touching a fence can ground it out, making it practically useless. It is worthwhile to inspect your fences on a regular basis, cutting down any weeds touching any of the wires. Think about the wind, too—on a calm day a weed may not touch the fence but in the wind it may bend over and reach the wires.

The cost-effectiveness of electric

With the price of bees and equipment going up, the cost of installing a suitable electric fence makes economic sense. As part of the Defenders of Wildlife’s goal of keeping bears out of trouble through education efforts, as well as financial help, they’re offering to reimburse property owners for 50 percent (up to $500) for the cost of an electric fence. For more information on their Electric Fence Incentive, go to: https://defenders.org/got-grizzlies.

Be proactive to protect your bees

If you have bees in bear country, don’t wait until you have one on your porch to protect your colonies. Invest in a fence that lasts for years, if not decades. This assures your hard work, and the hard work of bees, is safeguarded from the hungry paws of a local bruin.