We are going to start a second beeyard at another farm. We wanted to have a second beeyard as a hedge against the chance that a bear will destroy our existing honeybee hives.
Our hives in their current location are surrounded by a traditional electric fence, three strands, and is part of a larger electric fence to keep beef cattle in their pasture. Bill, who owns the farm where our hives are, thinks the local bears are already aware of his electric fence, and have not tried to get to our beehives.
But if the bear ever did, we would lose all our hives. So we decided this year to put a few hives at another friends farm, on the other side of town.
The Electro Net fence protecting a beeyard, photo from Premier 1
I started to look in to bear proofing and saw an ad in Bee Culture magazine for a bear proof electric fence that will protect beehives from bears. I contacted the company, Premiere 1, and they sent me an ElectroNet 9/35/12 electric fence and a PRS 50 Solar Energizer at no charge to use in our new beeyard.
The solar Energizer, which contains the battery and electronics to zap bears, is housed in metal box that looks like it was engineered for space travel. Its pretty bulletproof.
The electric fence and solar powered energizer for our beeyard
Interior of the solar powered energizer
We’ll shoot a GardenFork show about starting a new beeyard and installing this fence, and I’ll report back on how it works with our local bears. Thanks for Premier 1 for sending me this.
Laurae
how many volts are in that fence?
Tony
Getting ready to put in a fence around my hives and wondered ifthis worked out for you. Thanks! And we are addicted to your videos and podcasts!
Eric Gunnar Rochow
we have been lucky with regard to bears, we have not had a bear cross the fence so far. thanks for watching, eric.