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If the Governor signs MD HB177, beekeepers in Maryland will be granted legal permission to shoot black bears if they threaten honey bee colonies, but only if they have contacted the state's Department of Natural Resources to receive an electric fence:
It's a cliché that happens to be true: Bears love honey. And in Maryland, lawmakers have passed a bill making it legal to shoot a black bear if it threatens a beekeeper's hive.
In February, state Del. Mike McKay testified before the Environment and Transportation Committee on behalf of the bill. He wore a vest festooned with the image of Winnie the Pooh. Del. Herb McMillan noted McKay's attire didn't seem to square with his arguments. "I know you came in here talking about Winnie the Pooh, but the gist of the bill is that you can shoot him," McMillan said, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Existing Maryland law requires a person to have a hunting license and a black bear hunting permit in order to hunt black bears in the state. Exempted is "a person who kills or wounds a black bear in defense of his/her own life, the lives of other individuals, or the lives of animals on the individual's property." This week, Maryland's General Assembly passed McKay's bill. So, if the measure is signed by the governor, as of June, the exemption on hunting bears will extend to the owners of honeybee colonies, if the owner has contacted the state's Department of Natural Resources and installed an electric fence to protect the hive. The measure also provides funds to provide electric fences to beekeepers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 14 2017, @01:46AM (1 child)
When I saw the headline, I thought "How difficult can it be to make a bear-proof barrier?"
I figured some rebar and some welding and some concrete for an anchor.
Space things far enough apart that the bees can get through and close enough that a bear can't.
It shouldn't take that much material.
Make it tall enough that a human can stand up in it and far enough from the hive(s) that even if the bear got a limb through, he couldn't reach anything of value.
How far off am I?
They can do terrible damage to orchards as well
Details would be interesting.
for example
There are other items that relate?
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 14 2017, @04:48AM
Black bears climb. Almost anything a stock human can climb, the bear can too (and some things you can't, thanks to their claws). And standing, they've got more reach than you.
Here in MT we have a problem with bears breaking into garages, because they've learned that's where the freezer is kept, and that meat is kept in freezers. In fact a couple years before we got this place, a bear broke into the rental house and had its way with the fridge. (And no, it's not in the wilderness; we're a mile from town, with plenty of neighbors, and on a busy highway and RR track.)
Bears also break into cars:
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/30/us/to-bears-in-yosemite-cars-are-like-cookie-jars.html [nytimes.com]
Bears damage orchards by climbing into trees where their weight breaks the young productive branches, and also by simply pulling them down to get at the fruit.
Economics of bear damage (this is to timber but you get the idea)
http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tpl/Downloads/URSUS/Vol_12/Ziegltrum_Nolte_Vol_12.pdf [bearbiology.com]
More on black bears and crop damage:
http://icwdm.org/handbook/carnivor/black_bears.asp [icwdm.org]
Black bears are not rare. Even Maryland, hardly most people's idea of rural, estimates a population of about 1000 bears (and estimates usually err too low, often by a lot).
http://dnr2.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/hunt_trap/bbfaq.aspx [maryland.gov]
Electric fences help, but some bears get wise to them.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.