On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, muses wrote:

> BACON!
>
> Just like the comericals... hang a piece on the juiced up fencing and they
> will learn quickly.  Their fur is too long to notice anything other than on
> their nose but that tender mouth, now thats another story.
>

I've got a 3-tier defense that is working nicely.  First is a 3-strand
barbed-wire fence on metal T-posts.  The intent of this is not so much to
stop the bear, as to (a) slow him down, so he can't just charge through
the fence, and (b) make sure he is *very* well grounded electrically.

Which brings us to the second tier, a 4-strand electric fence two feet
inside the barbed wire, and baited with bacon strips.  The fence energizer
sends out 1-joule pulses, which is about the energy of a smart kick in the
nose, so it is pretty peppy. The idea here is that by the time he touches
the electrified bacon, he is moving slow and well tangled in the barbed
wire, and the barbs will reach the skin for maximum grounding.  It
certainly gave *me* a powerful jolt when I touched both fences at once.

If he gets through this, I expect he'll be pretty well traumatized, so
when he reaches the third tier and the Critter Gitter screams at him, with
any luck he'll either give it up and high-tail it out of there, or have a
heart attack on the spot.  I know the Critter Gitter certainly gives *me*
a surprise every time I accidentally set it off.

I'm not 100% sure that this will stop all bears, but it seems to work on
the black bears that we have here.  The electric fence alone works
reasonably well, but after I got a bear that had apparently developed a
taste for bees elsewhere, and figured out he could charge the fence and
get away with one jolt or less, the barbed wire and critter gitter went
up. He hasn't been back in the yard since.  I've considered coils of razor
wire, too, although that may be a tad excessive.  I've already been
informed that the bee yard is looking like a prison exercise yard, and
razor wire would just push it over the edge.

As a final touch, every time you go to the bee yard you could try
urinating around the border.  Hey, if other mammals can mark their
territory this way, why can't we?  It can't hurt to try it, and has
the advantage of being free.

--
Tim Eisele
[log in to unmask]

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