jamesinalaska
Member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2015
- Messages
- 256
I have a friend who keeps bees as a hobby and he usually keeps 4 hives through the summer. Last summer (mid August with a little nectar still flowing) my friend calls me up and says a black bear got into his hives and tells me I "got to come see this".
I drove over and sure enough my friend's little quad of hives were all broken flat. That old boar (just one bear we were prertty sure, so probably a boar) got into them, broke the boxes almost flat and ate everything: brood comb, honey comb, larvae, even some of the bees.
My friend had gone fishing and had fortunately pulled a good bit of honey off the supers before he left so the bear didn't get it all, but still ...my friend was pretty upset. That boar must have come to the hives a couple of times to eat so much. The thing is this: how was that old fellow able to withstand the bee attacks? The bees must have been swarming and constantly stinging his nose, eyes and ears and yet there he stayed...destroying and eating until it was gone.
Certainly an unfortunate incident for my friend, but I was reminded of that incident this weekend when I heard some hippies talking about how "bear spray is more effective than a gun". Well, that's just a truck load of crap and I know better. A determined bear will tolerate a whole lot of displeasure to get what it wants including hundreds - maybe even thousands- of bee stings. And a really angry bear, one that is charging downhill at you, is a determined bear and isn't going to be stopped by a thin cloud of pepper spray.
Yes, I've seen the videos where someone sprays a little black bear and off the critter runs, and then the salesman is telling everyone how great their product is, but usually the bears in those videos are displaying a very curious or shy behavior; it's easy to chase those fellows away. I'm talking about aggressive or determined behavior from an old bear or surprised or irritated or starving bear. Those behaviors are different and I have never trusted pepper spray to shield me from those. I trust 10mm and God, and so should you.
I drove over and sure enough my friend's little quad of hives were all broken flat. That old boar (just one bear we were prertty sure, so probably a boar) got into them, broke the boxes almost flat and ate everything: brood comb, honey comb, larvae, even some of the bees.
My friend had gone fishing and had fortunately pulled a good bit of honey off the supers before he left so the bear didn't get it all, but still ...my friend was pretty upset. That boar must have come to the hives a couple of times to eat so much. The thing is this: how was that old fellow able to withstand the bee attacks? The bees must have been swarming and constantly stinging his nose, eyes and ears and yet there he stayed...destroying and eating until it was gone.
Certainly an unfortunate incident for my friend, but I was reminded of that incident this weekend when I heard some hippies talking about how "bear spray is more effective than a gun". Well, that's just a truck load of crap and I know better. A determined bear will tolerate a whole lot of displeasure to get what it wants including hundreds - maybe even thousands- of bee stings. And a really angry bear, one that is charging downhill at you, is a determined bear and isn't going to be stopped by a thin cloud of pepper spray.
Yes, I've seen the videos where someone sprays a little black bear and off the critter runs, and then the salesman is telling everyone how great their product is, but usually the bears in those videos are displaying a very curious or shy behavior; it's easy to chase those fellows away. I'm talking about aggressive or determined behavior from an old bear or surprised or irritated or starving bear. Those behaviors are different and I have never trusted pepper spray to shield me from those. I trust 10mm and God, and so should you.