North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dan & Marilyn Mason" <dmason@rainyriver.lakeheadu.ca>]

<I was wondering if the fishing line that was proposed for deer
control could be efficient to prevent the bears from coming
in the orchard.

Any others on the list have tried something about bears?

Claude Jolicoeur, Quebec.>
--------------------------

Claude,

The only fence that has worked for us for bears is the short 2'
woven wire electric fence that we use for keeping raccoons from
the sweet corn. No bears or raccoons have ever passed this fence
to bother the corn in the last 4 or 5 years that we've used it.
The idea came from a neighbor who raises 5 acres of sweet corn
to sell. An electric woven wire fence was the only way he knew
that worked for keeping out raccoons and bears.

We cut a roll of 4' stucco wire in half, and tie the 2' tall 2"
mesh wire with plastic twine onto 30" wooden fence posts, so that
the fence is outside the posts and the wire extends just over the
posts on top, and less than 2" clearance from ground. This is to
keep the raccoons from getting under the fence or using the posts
for vaulting should the posts extend above the wire. This fence is
installed on bare cultivated ground before the corn is ripe. We
use a 12 vt. fencer powered by a spare car battery, charged
once a month.

We have a 5' thin woven wire fence around the orchard. This
doesn't deter bears.

One of my neighbors used to raise honey bees. He used electric
fences around his hives. He said the electric fences worked for
bears as long as the electric fence was installed before the bear
had a taste of honey. Once a bear had tried the honey, an electric
fence would no longer deter the bear from taking more honey.

His electric fence consisted of about a 4' fence, using chicken
wire at the bottom that was grounded, and the electric wire was on
plastic insulators a few inches above the chicken wire. This way
the bear or raccoon would be either grounded to the ground or the
chicken wire when touching the electric wire.

Hope this helps,

Dan Mason   zone 3, NW Ontario
dmason@rainyriver.lakeheadu.ca


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