Raising Chickens in Bear Country
The high price of eggs today has more people than ever before thinking about raising their own or expanding their flocks and starting a small business supplying their egg-deprived neighbors. Your chickens are no match for hungry wildlife; they’re counting on you to keep them safe.
Chickens are Fast Food for Bears
All those calories, all rounded up in one convenient place. Bears don’t know they aren’t supposed to bother your flock. They just know they smell an easy meal.
Chickens, eggs and chicken feed look and smell like food to a hungry bear. That’s because all three are loaded with calories. Just three chickens (minus the feathers) total about 4,500 calories – almost two days’ worth of nutrition for a bear. A dozen eggs (with shells) is 888 calories.
Chicken feed is a high-calorie mix of essential carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals – carefully formulated to supply chickens with all the nutrition they need to grow up fat and healthy and produce lots of eggs (or chicken dinners). Safely store feed in a bear-resistant container or inside a sturdy locked building (not inside the chicken coop or on the porch). Plastic tubs won’t keep out bears.
Don’t Treat Wildlife to a Chicken Dinner
Unprotected chickens, eggs and chicken feed are easy pickings for a wide range of hungry critters, from coyotes, skunks, raccoons, snakes and birds of prey to the proverbial fox. And bears. Bears are quick learners with great memories. Once a bear discovers a chicken coop, they’ll come back . . . and check out every backyard hoping to find more.
A sturdy, lidded pen may keep out a fox or a raccoon, but it won’t deter a determined bear. An electric fence is the best way to safeguard your flock and keep bears out. Bonus: an electric fence will also protect other small, vulnerable livestock, including other species of poultry, rabbits and vulnerable baby animals.
Get Your Buzz On and Keep Bears Out
A properly constructed, installed and maintained electric fence is the most fool-proof, powerful and long-lasting bear-deterrent available. When a bear’s super-sensitive lips, nose or tongue come in contact with a “hot” wire, the bear has an experience it never wants to repeat. Getting zapped does no permanent harm to bears (or people and pets) but it does teach the bear a life-saving lesson.
Electric fencing designs and materials are widely available online and at farm and ranch stores and home centers. The materials needed to protect the average chicken coop add up to far less than the cost of replacing your flock (and sometimes your coop). Invest now and protect your flock and coop for many years to come.
Download the BearWise bulletin: Electric Fences Keep Bears Out
Learn more about electric fencing.
Many states offer help with fence design and installation, and some have programs to help offset costs. Check with your state wildlife agency to find out more. Also check with your HOA, community or county for any local regulations before installing an electric fence.
View video: Watch what happens when a black bear meets an electric fence (courtesy of New Hampshire Fish & Game)
What are chickens (and eggs) worth?
Bears that destroy livestock and damage property often pay with their lives. You can have your chickens and eggs without endangering bears. So fence up. Protect your flock. And keep bears wild.
