So, for the last 19 years or so I’ve told anyone, who was interested, that my mesh electric fence with a solar charger was 100% effective in keeping bears away from my hives.  Until last night.  After being gone all week on a business trip, I went out this morning to see that some of the hives had been knocked over.  Now, I have a broken foot and am on crutches and in a boot, so dealing with the situation was a bit challenging.  I made the stupid human mistake of suiting up (smart) but not covering the boot, which is black (not so smart).  If you’ve never seen one (lucky you), it consists of a hard-plastic shell with a foam interior and velcro compression straps.  The bees were on it very quickly, and in just a couple of minutes, after they burrowed between the plastic parts to the mesh parts, I started getting stung.  Not fun, since there is no way to get into it to remove the bees.  I was forced to make a hasty retreat, even leaving my crutches behind, and hobble/hop across the lawn, while 50 or more bees tried to get inside the boot.  Finally using my brain, I taped a plastic bag over the boot (and over my other shoe, which they also managed to get into, ouch), and I was able to finish the repair.  Ended up with a half dozen or so full-dose stings on the broken foot and a couple on the other foot.  That’s the Stupid Human part of the story.

The more interesting part, I think, is that, out of 11 hives, two were knocked over and three had their lids and vent boxes knocked off.  But, NO frames were damaged.  All boxes fell over and stayed connected, thanks to propolis.  So, it was relatively easy to put everything back together, and I don’t think the queens were injured.  It only got bad with the second hive, because I had to pry the boxes apart to stand it back up, and they did NOT like that (the first one I was able to slide back up and onto the stand with the boxes still connected).  A couple of empty stacks were also knocked over, but, again, no frames were damaged.  I’m at a loss to explain the lack of damage and would appreciate anyone’s thoughts.  My best guess is that it was a younger, inexperienced bear, and the bees mounted such a strong defense that it was driven off.  The fence was undamaged.  It had a lot of growth on it, since it is late in the season, and I haven’t been able to keep it cleared, being on crutches for the past month.  Honestly, it looked more like the kind of thing a human would do, but in that case, I would expect the damage to be more organized (hives are in a row, 3 and 7 were knocked over, and 2, 5 and 11 had their lids knocked off).

I did spend some time clearing the fence, and I will test it later to see what kind of charge it is putting out.  The charger appears to be fine.  I’m wondering now, if I will have a recurring problem with this bear.  Last year we had a bear destroy several bird feeders, and I had a local guy, who raises bear hounds, run his dogs on the property.  I’ve called him and invited him back to train and even hunt on my property (60 acres), which would be a great solution, if he was successful.  I’m sure this bear has been around all summer, as the farmer, who grows feed corn on some of my land, has seen evidence of bear damage in the fields.  My guess is that the fence charge just dropped too low, and he finally was able to get through.

Would appreciate all thoughts, ideas, suggestions.

Thanks, in advance,

Gimpy Bill
New Hampshire, US

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