I lasted two years here in NH before a bear found my first hive.  Since then, on the recommendation of the state wildlife specialist, I set up a 9 hot wire, 36 inch high, mesh or net electric fence, as sold by Premier.  In the 18 years since, my hives have been hit twice, once when I was getting ready to move, got lazy and didn't set up the fence (rolled the dice and lost), and the second time, when the disposable-battery charger failed.  Since that charger failed, which was over 10 years ago, I've gone to a 6 volt Parmak solar charger, which has worked great.  There are no grounding rods on 160 feet of 36-inch, 9 hot wire mesh fencing, and I leave it up year round.  In the spring I pull it up, clear the dead leaves, weed whack the line and set it back up.  Even now, with growth on the lower strand and pre-cleanup, it still puts out 5,000 volts.  I have a similar set-up around my chickens with 300 feet of  48-inch, 11 strand hot-wire hooked to a 12-volt Parmak solar charger.  It does have three grounding rods and puts out 15,000 volts on a good day.  Keeps out fisher cats, coyotes, skunks, etc.  I see bear spoor around my apiary regularly, but they never go through the fence.  I have never baited the fence.  Also, the fence doesn't put out a charge, once the snow gets over the first wire and shorts it out, but I still leave it up and hot.  If we have a winter like this past one with almost no snow, it keeps a charge pretty much all winter.

One piece of advice.  If you have a lot of deer around, consider hanging fluorescent blue surveyor's tape from the posts.  Two winters ago right before Christmas an 8-point buck ran into my fence in a snow storm (probably was feeding on drops under one of the nearby apple trees and got spooked), got it wrapped around his antlers and feet and, in his struggling pulled the fence in on himself, toppling all 12 of my hives.  I was away on a business trip and he lay there for several days.  Fire department, fish and game, we all tried to save him, but eventually had to put him down, and I lost all my hives that winter.  With thousands of dead bees all around in the snow, it was very sad and even hard to believe.  Fish and game guy said he had never seen it happen in 18 years EXCEPT the same thing happened to another beekeeper three weeks earlier about an hour from me.  Go figure.  I researched a little and learned that deer can see colors in the blue - UV range of the spectrum (which, supposedly, is why they don't spook from hunter orange, as it's just gray to them), so I thought the surveyor tape might be a little insurance, fluttering in the breeze if the white fence is obscured in snow.  Deer trails go past both sides of the apiary, and, knock on wood, so far no more deer accidents.

Anyway, bottom line is that a mesh fence (also called a portable pasture fence) with a solar charger has worked for me for many years.  Would it stop a grizzly?  I suppose not.  But, it has worked on the local black bear.

Good luck.

Bill

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