How to protect your apiary from bears and other unwanted guests

The protection of the apiary is a primary task for the beekeeper in conditions when he cannot constantly be near the hives. There are a lot of hunters to “open their mouths on someone else’s medok”. These are animals, including the king of the taiga, the bear, driven by hunger in the territories inhabited by humans. And also people who decided to get bee colonies for free.

To protect against theft and bankruptcy, there are various security devices for the apiary. We will talk about them in more detail.

The content of the article

  • 1 What are the methods of protection
  • 2 Use of photovoltaics
  • 3 Using a homemade alarm
  • 4 Fight with bears
    • 4.1 Electric fence
    • 4.2 How else to protect yourself from bears

What are the methods of protection

The arsenal of devices and methods for protecting the beekeeping economy is quite diverse. Here is a list of the basic tools available to most beekeepers:

Option I… As strange as it may sound, we will put insurance first. Any security system can be bypassed – this is an indisputable fact. Therefore, insurance is the only way to return part of the money invested in the event of theft or damage to beekeeping property. Of course, to obtain it, you will have to work hard and collect all the necessary papers. But it’s worth it! Indeed, in the event of any natural disaster, malicious arson of hives, theft, insurance will at least partially restore the lost property. Unfortunately, many beekeepers neglect insurance.

Option II… Classic security. It is justified when it comes to a large apiary. Beekeepers can join and guard their property in turns. Or hire a security guard for money. This is one of the most reliable, albeit expensive, ways to save property. Alternatively, you can get large dogs. True, letting them off the leash is not worth it, since in the event of an attack on a thief of dogs of fighting breeds, the law will not be on the side of the beekeeper.

security guard

Option III… You can turn the hives themselves into a fortress or a non-transportable structure. There are several ways to do this:

  • installation of locks on covers;
  • the use of non-collapsible multi-body structures with secret constipation – in this case, the hives are literally overwhelming when fully loaded with honey;
  • drilling a small hole in the bottom – when the bee house rises, insects immediately get out and begin to attack uninvited guests even at night;
  • the use of deliberately flimsy structures – such a hive in the hands of an inexperienced person is disassembled into its constituent elements.

Option IV… The use of all sorts of traps. This method is only appropriate for animal control. But in a war against thieves in human guise, traps, as a way of harming their health, are unacceptable from a legislative point of view. Such activity is criminalized.

Variant… Psychological pressure. Works only when placing apiaries in remote villages and settlements. It implies all kinds of “intimidation” of the local population. You can, for example, show off your acquaintances among the police. Or to warn you that angry dogs get off the leash at night. It all depends on the imagination and ingenuity of the beekeeper himself. Of course, such “protection” does not give 100% protection.

Option VI… The use of all sorts of warning signs. The method usually works only with those intruders who do not know the area well. Here, too, everything depends on the ingenuity of the beekeepers. In practice, there are signs with very original inscriptions, like “Caution! The danger of contracting encephalitis. “

Option VII… Use of relief features. If the terrain permits, the apiary can be installed in a hard-to-reach place, for example, in the center of thorny thickets or on a separate island, rock, along a cliff, and so on.

Option VIII… You can build insurmountable obstacles and barriers with your own hands. These are high fences with barbed wire, a moat with water (excellent protection from forest fires), plowed wide swaths of land (they help well in inclement weather).

Option IX… Distance protection, that is, the use of video cameras and alarms. However, this cannot be fully considered a reliable obstacle in the way of thieves, since the success of the application depends entirely on whether the owners or the hired security will have time to respond to the alarm notification, video surveillance systems.

The complex application of several of the listed methods of protection shows great efficiency.

Use of photovoltaics

photovoltaic

Photo and video recorders or “forest cameras” are security devices equipped with infrared motion sensors. Each individual recorder is a digital camera, sensor and flash.

The camera turns on only when an object appears that stands out due to its thermal characteristics against the background of the environment.

Depending on the type of device, video or photo can be taken. Separate models record what is happening in the controlled area at specified intervals. All received information is stored on the internal memory of the device.

Power is supplied by a rechargeable battery or batteries, which last from three weeks to several months, depending on the shooting mode. If desired, you can connect a solar panel.

For the protection of beekeeping farms, standard camera traps with SD cards from 8 to 32 gigabytes are suitable. If you want to receive footage on your phone, you will need an MSS model that sends MMS messages. And for notification by e-mail, you need a 3G trap. Such a miracle of technology is suitable both for stationary keeping of bees and for migrating.

registrar

The main thing is disguise!

To use a camera trap successfully, it is important to follow a few rules:

  • the whole point must be in the field of view of the camera;
  • direct sunlight should not light up the frame and cause false triggering of the recorder;
  • there should be no branches nearby – such an obstacle serves as a reflector;
  • the apiary should be well lit (located in an area open to the camera);
  • and most importantly – the recorder must be well disguised!

It should be remembered that the camera will not prevent theft, but will only tell the owner of the apiary who and when visited his points.

Using a homemade alarm

Apiary alarms can be of different types. It all depends on where and for what to use it. There are also homemade samples of this equipment. Here are two interesting examples.

If you need to protect a stationary pavilion, platform or individual hives, you can use a homemade electrical alarm.

electrical alarm

In the hive, the device is mounted as follows:

  • the button (1) is attached to an elastic metal plate (2);
  • the plate is installed on the inside of the body (3) and screwed on with a screw (4);
  • the cover (5) is lowered from above – the plate is bent, releasing the button.

The alarm works simply. As soon as the lid is slightly moved, the circuit will immediately close and a signal will sound. As an alert, you can use a signal from a motorcycle or car, which is fixed in the room and has a switch (B1). The signal sounds until the switch is turned off.

The platforms use a thread tied to a button plate. If the hive is moved, the thread breaks, triggering an alarm. And in closed-type pavilions, the button is fixed on the door frame. When the door is opened, it goes down and closes the chain.

Such an electrical alarm, as mentioned above, helps to call the guards or the owners of the apiary, if they are near the point – that is, they live nearby.

GSM alarm system allows you to notify about the penetration of thieves if the owners are absent from the apiary… True, everything here will depend on the efficiency – in how many minutes the owners will have time to get to the point or pavilion, platform (trailer).

Principle of operation:

  1. You need a GSM antenna (if the point is in a forest or field where the signal of a mobile operator is weak), which is installed as high as possible.
  2. The antenna is connected to a GSM dialer equipped with an external antenna connector.
  3. A 12 volt battery is required for power. You can take the old one from relatives or friends for 60, 85 amperes. He will work in the apiary for another 1,5-2 years without failures.

homemade

1) the dialer; 2) battery

The sensors of the Israeli company Crow-swan quad are mounted on the mast so that they cover an area of ​​360 degrees. You can install them between the hives, painting them in a suitable color – this is an additional disguise. There is a jumper inside the sensors to protect the activation on animals (for 15 and 25 kg). And the alarm itself is hiding in one of the hives – it is difficult for an intruder to find it.

sensors

Installed sensors

To prevent the device from triggering on wolf or fox packs, herds of goats, and so on, it is necessary to scatter spent cartridges near the point – the smell of gunpowder will scare off wild animals for 4-7 days. Of course, it will be easier to deal with this question close to home.

Fight with bears

Cases of bears ruining apiaries are becoming more frequent every year. As you know, these wild animals are great lovers of honey and bee brood. It is difficult to get to the bees in the forest – not every tree succumbs to claws and teeth. And in an apiary with access to a sweet treat, there are no problems. Moreover, people themselves master the taiga, moving more and more deep into the bear hunting grounds.

Animals quickly get used to a person and cease to be afraid of him. And to places of human habitation they are attracted by the smell of unused food waste. Accordingly, apiaries also fall into the risk zone, especially in years with poor harvests for wild berries. Without rowan, raspberry and angelica, the bears feel hungry – they are immediately taken for nearby apiaries.

Electric fence

The most effective defense against such attacks these days is the use of a special electric fence. More often, such a device is called an electric shepherd.

Video on using the device in practice:

The fence looks like a wire fence mounted on posts with insulators. Insulators can also be mounted on trees, but this is not entirely correct. In the event of rain, the branch may come into contact with the wire and cause the circuit to close, thereby damaging the protective system.

hedge

The wires are connected to a generator – a source of high voltage pulsed current. Electricity does not kill animals, it only scares them away. As you know, bears first smell an unfamiliar obstacle and immediately receive a not fatal, but quite tangible discharge of current.

The kit includes a rechargeable battery that can be charged during the day from the solar panel. Some models have the ability to connect to a household power supply via an adapter.

The device is classified according to the area of ​​the served area. Models are available 25 by 25, 50 by 50, 75 by 75, 100 by 100, 200 by 100 meters. The cost of one set is from 12 to 000 rubles. Components are sold separately – pulse generators (19-000 rubles).

The complete set is a pulse generator, a set of insulators, a galvanized steel wire, a wire connector, a grounding pole and a set of spring wickets.

hedge kit

And a homemade electric shepherd from a bear for an apiary can be made according to the schemes below:

photo-2 photo-3 photo-1

How else to protect yourself from bears

There are other, less effective ways to protect the hives from the clubfoot predator.

bear in the apiary

You can scare away bears from the apiary with the help of dogs… Good watchmen are made from huskies or stray mongrels. Two or three males, distinguished by a clear voice and sufficient courage, will notify armed guards or owners about the approach of a bear. During the day, the dogs are kept in open-air cages equipped with deep kennels with a canopy at the entrance – here they will hide from the midges and irritated bees.

Fences assembled from sheet iron have shown themselves well… Such material and the height of the fence of 2,5-3 meters does not allow the animal to catch its claws and climb onto the points. The animal breaks a wooden fence without much effort, and under the mesh fence without a strong foundation it makes a tunnel or climbs over it.

Precautions in areas where bears live:

  1. Food waste is necessarily buried, and the place of their burial is filled with bleach.
  2. Raspberries and other berry crops that lure hungry bears do not sit on the site.
  3. During the day, you can turn on the radio outside. Animals don’t like noise.

When a predator approaches, it is scared off with sharp claps and cries. You can’t look in the eyes, turn your back and run! This can provoke the animal to attack.

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Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

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