black bears and electric wire

[wleigh1021]

For those of you that have an electric fence or hot wire on your coop/run, do you find that it keeps bears from coming back to the neighborhood? I had the same bear attack twice this week and lost 10/15 chickens. My husband just built a beautiful very sturdy coop but the bear got in through my run. I'm considering the hot wire on coop and run, but I'm in a pretty close neighborhood and I'm worried that he'll keep coming back even with electric fence and attack a dog or even worse a child from the house next door. Any thoughts much appreciated. I'm willing to give up keeping chickens if it means a safer neighborhood.

Fish and wildlife is aware, and we are allowed to kill it if we can. I'm not sure that another bear won't show up again down the road though.

 

[sourland]

And our new governor is talking about canceling the bear hunt next year. To work the bear has to make contact with the hot wire with either his nose or mouth. Their fur acts as a 'non conductor'. I have heard that putting bacon strips on the wire assures that the bear gets a shock. Good luck. By any chance do you live in Sussex Co? My daughter in Andover has daily bear sightings. Good luck in reaching a resolution.

 

[wleigh1021]

I'm in Long Valley about 20 mins from Andover. Thank you!

 

[aart]

Yes, as @sourland mentions, they must be 'trained' to the hot wire,
but it can be very effective if installed and maintained properly.

@Howard E is one of the resident hot wire experts.
He has addressed the bear issue IIRC.
Here's some of his threads on the subject, take a gander:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/se...o=relevance&c[title_only]=1&c[user][0]=402320

 

[dpenning]

I think it works. I saw a video once of a bear being zapped. I cannot find that video again but this page talks about it. I've used this fencing and it made my 200lb mastiff squeal like a pig.

https://www.premier1supplies.com/a/how-electric-fence-and-netting-works#/

 

[itsasmallfarm]

we had a black bear rip through our electric fence (it was for the garden so no harm to the chickens or there fence) it was not hot wire like others recommend. as black bears are really rare (i want to say rare) where i live.

and that sucks about the black bear season for you guys getting shut down (i find it weird as my government just opened a trapping season for them in the south of my province)

 

[lazy gardener]

I believe there is a video of a black bear getting a charge from a poultry electronet on Premier 1. If I had a bear attack my coop or even show up in my yard, I'd be putting up an electric fence or having a trap set.

 

[Howard E]

One of the last long threads on the topic of bears......you are not alone!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/killer-bear-advice-needed.1206512/page-7

The video below gives a quick tutorial on the basics of how to build an electric fence, although these intrepid public servants also do a lot of things that are not necessary. They could have hung the fence on one of the corners instead of setting another post, etc, but I'm sure the fence would work as intended.

On the poly tape, there are also some subtle things you can do to improve performance. Our local farm and home sells two versions of poly rope. One is light and has very few wire strands in it. The other is loaded up with wire and does a much better job of conducting the the jolt. Cost is about double for the higher quality stuff, but for bears, I'd pop for the good stuff.

Although most who build a bear fence are using the white poly tape or poly rope......for it's visibility.....in the thread above, I noticed Chicken George mentioned the use of barbed wire, as the barbed wire spurs will penetrate the thick fur. If the poly tape didn't work, you might try barbed wire, and if so, use the 4 point stuff, which has substantially longer barbs. We used to build our electric cattle fences out of 4 point barbed wire.....mostly because we had a lot of rolls of it laying around, so didn't have to buy anything. It is extremely nasty stuff to work with. Expect to get cut up some. I'd consider this only as a last resort.

http://www.redbrand.com/Products/BarbedWire/2-point4-point.aspx

 

[wleigh1021]

parks officers may come set up a trap. We do have the shotgun at the ready but haven't seen it yet. I'm also considering using a dog kennel chain link fence behind the wire as it would be stronger than wood with hardware cloth. The dogs will be guarded until it is caught, but you never know if another one will show up down to road so I want to be prepared for any future occurrences too

 

[annagoodspeed]

Out here the beekeepers use a couple strands of hot wire around their hives. They use a twenty five mile solar charger for a small yard. They have a yard here and this is bear city, lots of wild apple trees, no problems here but they do have some problems occasionally in their yard network, so not fool proof but the best option they have. I use electric web fencing. No ground predator issues. Knock on wood.