Black Bears & Beehives Keep Them Out, Let's See the Pics of the Enclosure.

[keeperofthebees]

How do you guys keep the bears out?  If it works on a bear it would work to keep people out.

[LazyBkpr]

Dont have pics of it yet, but helped design and build a 6 by 20 shed on skids. Designed around the hives for friends blueberry fields. Pretty exciting design. Last I talked to them its working really well for wintering. This spring/summer will be the test to see if the bears try to tear it open.

[Perry]

I bought all the gear this past summer after a bear was seen close to one of my yards. I set up all the wire but never did get around to hooking up the pain box. I learned a thing or two about setting up wire though. I had a few of my pallets way too close to the wire and I was always bumping into it. Good thing I never had it charged.
Theft, especially of solar fencers is a problem, so I went with a marine battery, and will put the battery and pain box in an empty deep, and set a hive on it for safe keeping.

[keeperofthebees]

Dont have pics of it yet, but helped design and build a 6 by 20 shed on skids. Designed around the hives for friends blueberry fields. Pretty exciting design. Last I talked to them its working really well for wintering. This spring/summer will be the test to see if the bears try to tear it open.

Winch it onto a semi trailer or car hauler & go huh?

[LazyBkpr]

Dont have pics of it yet, but helped design and build a 6 by 20 shed on skids. Designed around the hives for friends blueberry fields. Pretty exciting design. Last I talked to them its working really well for wintering. This spring/summer will be the test to see if the bears try to tear it open.

Winch it onto a semi trailer or car hauler & go huh?

   Yes, that was part of the plan, so they could move it to other fields.. IF, this one works they plan to build more, and having them moveable would be a benefit..  we talked about putting them on trailers, but the cost starts to go up fast when wheels and brakes are added. When they spend well over 100K per year for bees I didnt think a basic trailer would be that big of a deal, but they did so we went with the skids.. ONE trailer with a winch, and one spare pickup can transfer them all. 12 Volt lights, a deep cycle battery with a small solar panel, a fence charger with the insulators and wires running around the lower part of the structure. Vent pipe with damper for winter ventilation, and windows covered with pieces of cattle panel for summer ventilation and exits for bees when inspecting. The bottom board is all one piece with built in exits, so the hive body will set directly on this, each "mount" screened with slides underneath.  We drank a little too much our first evening of discussion and had to more or less start over the next day, but it was pretty exciting for me to be able to explain why they needed certain things to keep bees inside of a shed.
   To be honest, if it works well, I may well be building them to use here. Getting the hives OUT of this danged wind would HAVE to be a benefit.

[keeperofthebees]

Call me bird brained here...But why not those old 60's -70's tri-axle car hauler trailers with no brakes made for the old gas guzzlers?  They're cheap and scary for the highway...but so what.  What ever happened to farm country, & orange triangles?  Green Badger chopper boxes?  You don't need something fast for the back roads.  How far are you intending to go with the closed wagons-trailers? 

A chopper box to haul cut up hay & corn sileage, is road legal as is from the factory.  All you'd be doing is cutting holes in the plywood for bee flights/8" hole saw if you can find one or bigger!  Gut out the tosser rolls & chains, and box the front in.  The old paddles off the chains are nothing but long angle iron...That's enough angle spaced out if you bolt them down to hold the hives from moving side to side.  Just get rid of all that old useless chain link between them....Bend up a few links of chain at a 90 to make anchor points on either side of each hive for bungees & tie downs.

You've got your head out of your butt enough to run wood working tools.  Router/2" bit to run slats for the entrances/bottom boards to stick out?...  If the bottom boards stick out, theres you're landing pad.  A screen entrance board to quick staple with 1-1/4, 1/4 crown air stapler...to move them in a pinch/portable air tank.

[LazyBkpr]

Theres a spread of about 40 miles to the two furthest fields. The bigger issue is that adding wheels means you also have to add lights, and then you have to register every one of them, and the little things continue to add up, where skids and a winch solve it all. When considering that the sheds would only be moved when they had to spray, and even then ONLY on the fields done by air, because the fields done by ground sprayer can be done at night.. making them more mobile doesn't give any advantage, but,, I did try, and was talked out of it.

[keeperofthebees]

Theres a spread of about 40 miles to the two furthest fields. The bigger issue is that adding wheels means you also have to add lights, and then you have to register every one of them, and the little things continue to add up, where skids and a winch solve it all. When considering that the sheds would only be moved when they had to spray, and even then ONLY on the fields done by air, because the fields done by ground sprayer can be done at night.. making them more mobile doesn't give any advantage, but,, I did try, and was talked out of it.

Covered farm wagons!  Road legal, triangle, no lights.  You're allowed to migrate machinery on the roads.  Get dual purpose plates on the truck.  I had a guy arguing with me about beekeeping how it's not farming.  Cows, crops, steers, bees, same thing.