JANUARY 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


33


Beekeepers learn to defend against wildlife Bear fencing can be effective if properly built – and make bears good neighbours


by PETER MITHAM MEADOW CREEK – Good


fences make good neighbours, and that’s especially true when it comes to grizzlies, the most feared of neighbours in BC’s backcountry. “When bears aren’t causing


problems, they’re actually fairly easy to live with,” Kootenay beekeeper Gillian Sanders, founder and coordinator of Grizzly Bear Coexistence Solutions, told the BC Honey Producers Association annual conference in Victoria in October. “When you protect your food sources, they’re actually quite a bit easier to live with than some of my human neighbours.” The project works towards the coexistence of bears and humans through education, collaboration and the use of practical tools such as fences. A good fence is hard to


find, however. The time-worn wisdom in many parts of BC was “see a bear, shoot a bear,” even among growers who put up fences with a view to protecting crops and livestock. The issue is particularly


acute for beekeepers, whose hives offer an energy-rich food source for bears getting ready for a long winter’s nap. Many, keen to haze bears, watch though the night to fire shots designed to scare off bears and protect their colonies and livelihood. “If you can install electric


fencing, be secure in the knowledge that your hives are safe. Then you get to go home and sleep at night, and that right there is priceless and provides a long-term solution,” she says. “And frankly, it’s


easier than staying up all night with a gun.” Beekeepers seem keen on


her offer. She’s built 48 fences in 2018 alone, and more than 250 since 2013. Program funding for the Kootenays comes from the Columbia Basin Trust, Trans-border Grizzly Bear Project and other organizations, which will fund up to half the cost of a new fencing to a maximum of $500. Sanders estimates that 35% to 40% of the fences she’s built over the past five years were for beehives. “It was a very high user


group to take advantage of cost-share funding because of that extreme expense that bears can cause us,” she says, noting that the fact she keeps bees herself and appreciates the issues beekeepers face probably helped, too. But even more important,


the fences worked. A mere 5% of the fences she’s installed have been ineffective, most often for lack of maintenance. “If you don’t maintain your


electric fence, it is not going to work,” she said, stating the obvious. Design issues accounted for


two other key reasons why fences fail. Sanders said fences need to have sufficient wires to shock and also have grounding appropriate to local soil conditions. Both are important to shock the bear on contact, and deliver enough of a jolt – 7,000 volts will do – to make the point that they’re in a no-go zone. “You need to design the


fence in mind [of] the animal you’re trying to keep in or out of the protected area,” she says.


She recommends five to six


hot wires around a yard, underscoring that wire is cheap and protection is important. She says if the bottom wire is cold and eight inches above the ground, the bear will dig and access the hives without ever receiving a shock. “Don’t skimp on your wires.


You want to hit the animal on the nose. You need your bottom wire to be hot to prevent digging,” she says. Drier summers mean that


growers also need to make sure the fence is well- grounded. Dry earth doesn’t conduct a charge as well as wet ground, meaning more than one grounding rod is needed to electrify the protected area. Some people have laid a grounded mesh within the soil where the animals step to ensure a circuit completes, and an animal is zapped when they touch a live wire. “It’s not a single ground rod


in dry earth conditions,” she says. “It’s actually a system of


three ground rods in the earth, about six-foot [long], spaced about 10 feet apart from each other.”


Sanders also told beekeepers to not leave any gaps in the electrification to allow for human access, because bears aren’t stupid. They’re going to find the gap, too. “When you’re building your


fence, think like a bear if you can. Don’t leave any gaps,” she says. “You need to electrify the whole enclosure. If you leave one area open, bears are pretty smart and they might find that opening, and then potentially you have a bear trapped inside the electrified area.”


This is obviously a


dangerous situation that could endanger not only the hives but the beekeeper, too. While an electric fence sends a sensory message to bears, Sanders encouraged beekeepers to install permanent fencing whenever possible so bears don’t have to keep relearning their lesson whenever an enclosure


moves.


While the province endorses baiting for the purposes of retraining a problem bear, Sanders said this is illegal under normal conditions and may have unintended consequences if the fence isn’t built well. “There is some indication


from producers that some bears, upon receiving a shock, will become enraged and ‘attack’ the fence tearing it apart and gain access to the hives,” notes the BC Ministry of Agriculture’s fencing factsheet [http://bit.do/bearfence]. Ultimately, a sturdy fence that delivers an immediate, powerful shock can foster good relations with bears, and improve their own chances of survival. “It allows us to raise food, including honey, in bear habitat,” Sanders says. “[It] potentially increases tolerance for grizzly bears as their populations recover and they move through low-elevation habitats where we live and raise food.”


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