Advice for hot wiring a coop against bears

[CrockChickens9]

We had a bear attack a little while ago and we have repaired the coop and now we are looking to add electric wire. We are hoping to just hot wire the coop and not do a fence. I’m looking for advice on placement of hot wiring to best deter bears and also wondering if the wire needs to constantly be baited? We have not seen any sign of a bear since the attack. We came to find out it had wiped out all of the neighborhood chickens (4 houses) that week so maybe it moved on but it also was the start of bear hunting season the week after the attack. It feels so uncomfortable to attract animals to the coop but I understand that unless baited hot wire will not be effective. Do you bait it every night forever? I am assuming new bears will come and go with the seasons. What is the best bait? If anyone has picture of how they have hot wired a coop I would love to see them. Thanks in advance for any information you can provide!

 

[Debbie292d]

I'm not understanding your question about baiting. The chickens inside were the bait once already.

A bear can't get into our coop, but could have gotten to the beehives, so those we used a solar electric fence and we did bait that with bacon strips hanging on the top wire. This was new to them is why we did this, and wanted to prevent them from bothering the bees. Instead, they went for the sunflower seeds and destroyed two wild bird feeders. Those are now strung in the trees on pulleys.

I found an old article about how someone hot-wired their coop. Granted, in 10 years, the technology may have improved from what was used here, but the concept would still be the same.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-with-an-electric-fencer-how-i-did-it.915975/

 

[CrockChickens9]

Thank you for the link! Sorry for the confusion. This may be a dumb question. I should have given more information. I had read that you need to bait electric fencing so a bear will touch it with their mouth or nose and not just tear through it with their thick fur protecting against a shock. It’s been a month since the bear attacked our coop (my 2 remaining chickens have been in an enclosure in the garage at night since then) so I’m really setting this up for the potential of other bears in the future as I think this bear has moved on by now but I know their are commonly bears in the area. Since I’m not baiting a particular bear but just hoping to defend against bears in general I was wondering how you would bait for this since you never know when one will wander by looking for a meal. Wouldn’t the wire need to be baited at all times to ensure it’s effective when needed? Hope this makes sense now and that anyone who is familiar with electric wiring could let me know the best way to protect with it. Thanks!

 

[PatriciafromCO]

Is there any neighbor that has chickens that didn't get hit by the bear? They would be a good person to see what they have.

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[CrockChickens9]

Thank you for the advice but unfortunately, no one withstood the attack that we know of. Our neighbors were posting about their attacks on a local Facebook backyard chicken page but unfortunately we just hadn’t checked it in a while so didn’t know. We probably had the most secure coop of the bunch but this bear was strong and tore the door frame out and just ripped the wood apart. It seems to me structural I may be able to buy time until we can try to scare it away but if a bear wants to get in the coop it will. I’m happy to hear any tips about structural deterrents. We reinforced the door and nesting boxes to be tougher to rip into. We bought a motion activated light, trail canera and wind chimes. We are also going to set up bear boards in front of the door, windows and nesting boxes. Last step is the hot wiring. Just want to make sure we are setting it up so that a bear would definitely interact with it in a way that would deter them. If anyone has any tips!