Dave wrote >  If it is a bear there will be tooth and claw marks in the wood.

I was going to say this myself. If you look carefully at the damage you can usually figure out what did it. Last year a friend's hive was knocked over and I thought it must have been a deer ran into in the dark. But later we found frames dragged into the bushes with obvious bear marks. Some other critters can rip open hives, but their marks will differ from bears. 

PLB

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