Hungry bears have a nose for trouble

Bolting upright from a sound sleep, Glen asked me, “Did we plug the electric fence back in when we closed up the hive?”  ummmmm…… “No.” The neighborhood dogs were barking ferociously in what we have come to know as a “bear bark".  Spirited response from our neighbors’ normally sweet black lab, chocolate lab and golden retriever normally drives bears back to the forest. But sniffing honey and intent on gorging, the noise and havoc moved louder and closer. Earlier that day, we had harvested honey from and simply forgotten to reactivate the protective electric fence hive enclosure.

We live in the country among millions of acres of ponderosa pine, alligator juniper and a surprising number of black bears. Driven into our area by heat, lack of rain and poor foraging, bears have been marauding nightly, keeping dogs and humans on high alert.  Glen, neighbor Caleb and I had harvested honey from our hive to beat the bears to the hard-earned gold of the untiring bees.

“The bear sounds close— maybe we should just trust the dogs to keep it away,” I said, peering out the window toward the sound of the action. I wasn’t keen for Glen to exit the safety of our house. Besides, the bear would cause mayhem if it broke through the flimsy fence wires. The hive would be reduced to splinters and honey would flow in places we’d rather it did not. But better to lose the bees than risk Glen getting between a hungry beast and his midnight snack.

“The dogs are slowing the bear down,” said Glen. “They are giving me time to get to the garage.”

Butt naked, he got out of bed, slipped on his boots, turned on the flashlight app of his iPhone and walked decisively toward the garage and power control of the electric fence.

Normally, wild critters are attracted to our neighbor’s place, sporting a pond, garden and bushes thick with raspberries. A bear’s sense of smell is 2,000 times stronger than humans and 7 times greater than a bloodhound.  Unimaginably keen. Besides the larvae of the baby bees within the hive, they were pulled toward the honey we spilled around the hive and frames of sticky comb awaiting extraction in the garage. Which was why Glen ventured out during a bear incursion; to switch on that untested electric measure of electric fencing while the dogs kept the bear from advancing our way.

It worked!  The frantic barking receded, and the bear made his way back to the forest, where he belongs.  We gave special treats to our guard force the next morning.  Thank you Rowdy, Charlie and Jade! Fingers crossed the bears find happier hunting in the forest.