[timk]

Any one have problems with bears and their goats while pened up. We have a bear that ate out chikens last year by tearing apart a 2x6 framed nesting box, We have two hornless goats now, that we got last fall and want to protect them from this or other bears in the area. At the moment they have a wood cabin type goat house with a 2x3 ft. entracne and their pen is feced with T posts and wlded wire type fencing. I have been playing with the ideas of running a hot wire around the top/middle of the outside to deter the bear when he first investagates. Any thoughts from?

Timk

 

[sweetgoatmama]

Hot wire is a good idea. Bears can be a problem, but usually are not. At least with the hotwire they get the point right away that goats aren't fun to mess with.

 

[Rex]

We live in bear country but have never had a problem with them coming into the goat pasture. Of course no one nearby has had them break into their chicken coop either. Bears are heavily hunted here so they don't mess around near houses very often. The biggest bear problem in our area is with bee hives. They are usually left unattended along the field edges and are tempting for bears. The most common method of protecting them is with multiple strands of hot wire about 10 inches apart. Bee keepers use high tensile fence instead of the thin electric fence and plant their posts about 4 feet apart. Even then, a persistent bear will still climb over occasionally.

I imagine your plan of putting a hot wire on the outside middle and top of your fence should work since they aren't driven by the smell of honey. I have used one strand of electric fence to keep deer out of the garden by hanging tinfoil strips on it every few feet with peanut butter on them. When the deer comes up to the fence it stops to sniff the peanut butter before jumping in and zap..... they high tail it out of there. You might want to try something similar for the bear.

The only totally Bear proof method would be to lock them in at night.

 

[Mike]

Black bears are the bane of calves and other young livestock up here. They kill more livestock in Wisconsin then the Wolves.

 

[jross]

Are dogs much of a deterent for bears? So far we haven't had problems with bears, mountain lions, bobcats, wolves or coyotes. And there are lots of them around here. The only thing I can think of is that my dog patrols and marks the territory all around the place so any bad guys know they are trespassing and maybe avoid the place. So far the only things I've actually seen him chase off are deer. He made the mistake of trying to chase some javelinas off once, and they chased him back to the house. Fortunately I was right there and ran them off with some lucky rocks.

 

[Rex]

I was told a story this spring about an Outfitter in New Mexico that had a bear coming into his Elk camp and seeked his cow dog on it to drive it away. The bear easily caught and killed the dog. Bears here in Idaho get hunted with hounds so they are pretty spooky around dogs. Thats apparently not the case in New Mexico.

 

[salmonfisher77]

We have had our goats thick into bear country and had a bear walk near camp with the boys just watch him! No problems with bear in there pasture but the 2 coyotes and 1 botcat that met up with the brahma bull didnt fair so well! He is VERY protective of his 17 boys!

 

[Rex]

salmonfisher77 wrote:

We have had our goats thick into bear country and had a bear walk near camp with the boys just watch him! No problems with bear in there pasture but the 2 coyotes and 1 botcat that met up with the brahma bull didnt fair so well! He is VERY protective of his 17 boys!

OK, you have me curious now...... How in the heck do you get a Brama Bull to protect your goats??

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