If only all TH-cam videos were done this well. Helpful, complete and well delivered. Excellent!!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Much appreciated.
Thanks for all the info . After looking at all models I was wondering what strenght I needed for my hives. Thanks to this video I will get something that will keep bears away .
Very usefull ! We will travel to Romania this year and stay overnight in the Carpartian mountains sleeping on the bed of our Unimog. The brown bear polulation is dense there. I already came to the solution with the electric fence, however your video is a great guideline. Thanks a lot !
Fantastic video. Just what I needed to create an enclosure for bear-proof bird feeders! Many thanks for creating it from a fellow TH-camr that's got 600+ videos up. I know how much time it takes!
You don't need a high voltage fence that will harm animals like cats, dogs, rabbits etc. Just for bird feeders..put bird feeders out in winter when birds have no food and bears are hibernating. If you have chickens....yes. important
This is unequivocally the most informative video on electric fencing for deterring bears. You even go so far as to establish the minimum joules and volts for bears.99% of videos harp on mileage, which is sadly misleading. The marketing folks know mileage means nothing, but it looks impressive and the customer ends up buying something useless and has to return it until they find the right one. Dare I say it takes a woman to do it right.
Excellent video, very well made. I add a link to a Quora answer I made about a week ago, you may see a rise in views soon. I will be linking that answer to any other electric fence questions I answer in the future also. Very impressive video! Jim Y
Would you please recommend a few brands or post that you use for off-grid? I have no idea where to buy it. Thank you so much, make me feel hopeful after watch this.
Some people I work for, have a fruit tree garden, an 8 foot fence, similar to the size of the one shown around the chickens in this video. Not actual chicken wire, a larger gauge and square connections. Besides the point... The bear climbed up and over the fence destroying a section of the fence. To get out, it dug under the fencing, in same spot it climbed over. Now, I've begun to install a solar power electric fence with three runs of wire. Completely surrounding the area... What do you recommend on spacing of the wires, we are trying to keep out rabbits, deer and bears...
Bear are easier to keepout than rabbits or deer! For bears I recommend at least 5 hot wires spaced about 8-9" apart to ensure nose contact. To keep out deer you may need to go as high as 8' non-electric fence and to keep out rabbits you may need to dig a finer mesh fence into the earth under the fenceline to prevent rabbits being able to dig under. For bears, I haven't had them successfully dig under when my bottom hot wire is not more than 8" from the surface of the earth. Of course you will need to maintain grass and weeds to that height to make sure fence is effective. I hope this helps; please ask if you have more questions :)
We live in the mountains (8,700' elevation), and we had a large black bear (which is actually cinnamon colored). Do you have any ideas for: 1. How to deter the bears to dig under the fence? 2. We get about 8' of snow during the winter. How to build something strong enough to withstand the snow loads and drifts without having to remove the fencing during the winter?
Hi, 1. I mention digging in the video: I use a bottom hot wire about 8" from the ground and this has prevented access by digging if bears have not already learned to dig to get to the food source . If you were to see signs of digging, splice a separate wire loop onto your bottom hot wire to fill in the gap created by the dig. You will need to have a stake with an insulator on it to hold the spliced wire in place. Position the spliced wire(s) to make nose contact. 2. If you have permanent fencing with high-tensile steel electrified wire it will generally shed the snow load. However you will always need to tighten up your wires in spring, and you will want to incorporate wire tighteners into the fence design. It is easier usually much easier to maintain this than to install temporary fencing that you set up and take down as needed, but if you will need to have braced corner posts to get the tension on the wires. For a small area, it may be more practical to just set up temporary seasonal fencing as needed :)
Thank you for this video. A ton of useful understandable information. Question, coastal black bears are climbing my 4ft cyclone fence & invading my yard (1/2 acre). If I ground the fence and put a couple hot wires at nose level won’t the fence act as a big ground wire? Would 12ga aluminum do the trick with a 4 joule energizer? Sandy soil on the Long Beach peninsula Wa. State.
Hello, yes if you ground the existing fence by connecting an insulated wire from the fence to the ground rods (use 3 of these in sandy soil) it will act as the ground behind the hot wires and if a bear pushes the hot wire against the grounded fencing it will receive an effective shock. 12ga aluminum wire is great and keep your wires about 5" away from the grounded fencing. There is no need to have insulators stand off more than that and you don't want a big gap between; just enough to hold the 2 separate. A 4 Joule energizer is ok but it's more than you need for a 1/2 acre so if you want to use a 2 Joule that's fine too. If you're serious about keeping bears out I recommend 5 hot wires spaced about 8-9" apart; if you only have 2 wires there is likelihood that a bear might only touch the wires with their thick coat and not receive a shock. Wire and insulators are relatively inexpensive so more is better to ensure nose contact :) Best wishes!
In addition to these measures, I think it is important that conservation societies and government parks departments, should work to keep wild areas replete with their food sources, instead of destroying their food sources.
It looks like you have two solar panels hooked up to one energizer unit. I have a Parmak Magum 12 Solar energizer and it doesn't seem to charge enough if we have several days of cloudy skies. I'll like to add a second solar panel to keep it charged. Can you tell me how you did this on your fence?
unfortunately I didn't connect them myself... I think ask an electrician? or I know that the Parmak Solar 12s have a trickle charger that you can plug in to keep them fully charged all winter. If you're in Canada a good place to order these from is: www.margosupplies.com/ca-en/product/parmak-taper-charger/
We are looking for the best way to electrify a mobile chicken tractor. We have chicken wire and corrugated sheeting around the outside of the wooden frame and plastic grid around the inside. We are connecting a solar energizer to the outer mesh / steel shell and the plastic grid keeps the birds away from the charged shell. This gives protection from everything that tries to gain access to the chicks from weasels to bears. Our problem is that the whole frame is electric and therefore we are loosing power as the energy goes to ground through the wooden frame . The energizer normally generates 10,000 volts on our normal fencing but drops to 5,000 volts with this system. Any Ideas on how to insulate the frame would be appreciated.
to keep bears out of a small area use an energizer with minimum 1 Joule and 7,000 volts output. You can put a higher powered energizer on a small area but the above specs will be effective.
I have a 15 joule Gallagher M1500 protecting my 1/2 acre back yard. Animals will remember the sharp jolt they receive and tend to stay away rather than constantly trying to get past the fence. I love mine !
Do you suggest aluminum wire or high tensile wire for bears? I read that aluminum is 4 times more conductive, but high tensile steel is a lot stronger? I will be using this to protect beehives from black bears.
Both considerations are true. Aluminum will be lighter to use and probably easier for a smaller area like a bee yard. If the area is dry, be sure to install a good grounding system (at least 2 ground rods) and possibly use an alternating hot/cold wire design with at least 4 hot and 3 cold wires and the bottom wire should not be more than 6-8" from the earth to prevent digging, but if you see signs of digging you may need to add another lower wire or install a grounded metal mesh flat on the earth around the outside of the fence. If you use the grounded mesh flat on the earth, you can use only 5-6 hot wires for the fence itself. Either way ensures that a bear receives an effective shock in dry conditions :)
7000-9000 volts is totally effective. There’s no need to go any higher. Just have a well constructed fence an ensure skin contact ie: make sure the bear can’t slip under or in between wires without making skin contact!
Yes. In the case in the video the mesh was already dug into the earth to prevent smaller predators from digging under so I did not need to. But in other cases of adding hot wires to preexisting metal mesh, I use the existing mesh as the 'ground' wires by connecting it directly to the ground rods as you mention. Then if a bear pushes the hot wire against the metal mesh fence it receives that instant strong and effective shock even in dry soils, and keeps the area well protected. Of course it's super necessary to ensure that the hot wires are otherwise kept well away from the metal mesh or they would ground out and you would lose the charge :)
Thank you some much for the fast reply!! So, my plan now, to cover both ways to deliver the ground, is to put in a single grounding rod (instead of the recommended 3 at 10ft intervals) and run a jumper from the ground rod to the old mesh fencing... then using extended insulators to run hot wires at a 8 inch spacing. thanks for the great video and reply, you can add an "assist" to your 130+ installations :)
Hi:I have a crawl space access door and bear breaks the door and goes into the crawl space. Do you know how I can install electric fence for the door to keep the bear out?
Hi Ali, you can put a wire screen mesh (stucco wire would work well) across the door and hang the screen mesh off of plastic electric fence insulators so it is not touching the door. Then wire from the fence energizer to the screen mesh and it will deliver a shock if the bear (or anybody else!) pushes on the door. You will have to turn off the energizer each time you want to access the crawl space, but it will keep the bears out! I hope this helps :)
it's a no-name brand that costs about $70 CAD... you can purchase digital voltmeters that are compatible with your energizer so you can turn energizer on/off remotely; these would be super handy! :)
No such place exists. Crocodiles, poisonous snakes, wild boars and more in south. Up North you have bears, wolves, big cats. Midwest is probably the safest place against larger predators but certain regions have rattle snakes, bob cats, and massive amounts of predators that will go after chickens and goats, but not anything much going after humans. Other humans are probably the worst risk.
Rather general ok video but took 2 mins to get to the point. I'm frustrated that no charger I've look at is rated in volts, only joules, so the 1.0 joule advice is useful.
if a child touches the fence they will receive a shock that they won't like, but there is no harm; it's a bit like a bee sting for < one second but without any longer term inflamation and swelling. It is of course best to teach children to not touch the fence and put up signs so people avoid the fenced area :)
This information is for people who live in bear habitat, which includes the majority of land outside of urban areas across N. America (and even within some urban areas!). If we can't learn to coexist with bears and other wildlife, they don't have a chance.
This is one of the most useful, straight-forward and succinct videos on electric bear fencing! Well done and thank you for putting it together!
Thank you! 🐻
If only all TH-cam videos were done this well. Helpful, complete and well delivered. Excellent!!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Much appreciated.
1 joules for bears? I don't think so. At 1 joules a human can hold the wire without issues
Thanks for all the info . After looking at all models I was wondering what strenght I needed for my hives. Thanks to this video I will get something that will keep bears away .
What an excellent video. Clear, informative, motivational, and well-delivered. Thank you so much.
Wonderful video. Thanks! I've used electric fences for garden protection for decades, and still picked up several useful tips here.
One of the better educational videos on this topic on YT
Nice job, thank you for the good information about keeping the vandals out of my orchard... there are no bad bears, just bad fences 😂
This is the best electric fence video that I have seen, thanks for the useful info
This is the video I have been looking for! Thank you for being so thorough and detailed!
Very usefull ! We will travel to Romania this year and stay overnight in the Carpartian mountains sleeping on the bed of our Unimog. The brown bear polulation is dense there. I already came to the solution with the electric fence, however your video is a great guideline. Thanks a lot !
Glad to help and enjoy your trip! 😊🐻
Comprehensive, clear, and concise.
Wow, you know your stuff! Thanks for sharing! You are a well spoken person.
This is a great video. Thank you. You answered all my questions and now I know what I'm gonna do....
Outstanding video packed with very useful information.
Fantastic video. Just what I needed to create an enclosure for bear-proof bird feeders! Many thanks for creating it from a fellow TH-camr that's got 600+ videos up. I know how much time it takes!
You don't need a high voltage fence that will harm animals like cats, dogs, rabbits etc. Just for bird feeders..put bird feeders out in winter when birds have no food and bears are hibernating. If you have chickens....yes. important
very good video. straightforward and informative. thank you !!
All very helpful information, thank you very much :) thumbs UP of course!
Thanks for your education. Wonderful video ever!
This is a very informative video.......Thanks for posting.
Thanks this information is useful for every formars and he perwent any animals attack his property.
Thanks for the very informational video.
Great job!
Great info and presentation. I'm interested in keeping black bears out of honey yard in NW North Carolina. Thanks.
This is unequivocally the most informative video on electric fencing for deterring bears. You even go so far as to establish the minimum joules and volts for bears.99% of videos harp on mileage, which is sadly misleading. The marketing folks know mileage means nothing, but it looks impressive and the customer ends up buying something useless and has to return it until they find the right one. Dare I say it takes a woman to do it right.
Thanks Clay! ;)
Thanks, I learned a lot from your video.
Excellent video, very well made. I add a link to a Quora answer I made about a week ago, you may see a rise in views soon. I will be linking that answer to any other electric fence questions I answer in the future also. Very impressive video! Jim Y
thanks Jim!
Would you please recommend a few brands or post that you use for off-grid? I have no idea where to buy it. Thank you so much, make me feel hopeful after watch this.
Thank you for this informative video .😀
Very useful information. Thank you for sharing
Excellent video
Excellent video!!
Great job on this video
Great Video!!!
Great video! Thank you!
Do you have a diagram on how you set up the hot wires on your fence gate?
Hello, I don't know how to attach to this TH-cam thread but if you email me at grizzlybearsolutions@gmail.com I can send you one!
Yes this fence may work for these bears, but Winnie The Pooh will fucking those fences up to get his honey out of those hives.
I can help with fence design to keep any species of bear out (including Winnie) ;) if you have a specific question I'll do my best to answer it :)
Some people I work for, have a fruit tree garden, an 8 foot fence, similar to the size of the one shown around the chickens in this video. Not actual chicken wire, a larger gauge and square connections. Besides the point...
The bear climbed up and over the fence destroying a section of the fence. To get out, it dug under the fencing, in same spot it climbed over. Now, I've begun to install a solar power electric fence with three runs of wire. Completely surrounding the area...
What do you recommend on spacing of the wires, we are trying to keep out rabbits, deer and bears...
Bear are easier to keepout than rabbits or deer! For bears I recommend at least 5 hot wires spaced about 8-9" apart to ensure nose contact. To keep out deer you may need to go as high as 8' non-electric fence and to keep out rabbits you may need to dig a finer mesh fence into the earth under the fenceline to prevent rabbits being able to dig under. For bears, I haven't had them successfully dig under when my bottom hot wire is not more than 8" from the surface of the earth. Of course you will need to maintain grass and weeds to that height to make sure fence is effective. I hope this helps; please ask if you have more questions :)
I so agree. Well said ladies.
This was useful. I have to bear-proof an ambulance (don't ask)
Hi, do you leave your electric fence on during winter? Will it destroy my charger?
We live in the mountains (8,700' elevation), and we had a large black bear (which is actually cinnamon colored).
Do you have any ideas for:
1. How to deter the bears to dig under the fence?
2. We get about 8' of snow during the winter. How to build something strong enough to withstand the snow loads and drifts without having to remove the fencing during the winter?
Hi, 1. I mention digging in the video: I use a bottom hot wire about 8" from the ground and this has prevented access by digging if bears have not already learned to dig to get to the food source . If you were to see signs of digging, splice a separate wire loop onto your bottom hot wire to fill in the gap created by the dig. You will need to have a stake with an insulator on it to hold the spliced wire in place. Position the spliced wire(s) to make nose contact. 2. If you have permanent fencing with high-tensile steel electrified wire it will generally shed the snow load. However you will always need to tighten up your wires in spring, and you will want to incorporate wire tighteners into the fence design. It is easier usually much easier to maintain this than to install temporary fencing that you set up and take down as needed, but if you will need to have braced corner posts to get the tension on the wires. For a small area, it may be more practical to just set up temporary seasonal fencing as needed :)
If I run 4 hot lines what heights should I put them at?
Thank you for this video. A ton of useful understandable information. Question, coastal black bears are climbing my 4ft cyclone fence & invading my yard (1/2 acre). If I ground the fence and put a couple hot wires at nose level won’t the fence act as a big ground wire? Would 12ga aluminum do the trick with a 4 joule energizer? Sandy soil on the Long Beach peninsula Wa. State.
Hello, yes if you ground the existing fence by connecting an insulated wire from the fence to the ground rods (use 3 of these in sandy soil) it will act as the ground behind the hot wires and if a bear pushes the hot wire against the grounded fencing it will receive an effective shock. 12ga aluminum wire is great and keep your wires about 5" away from the grounded fencing. There is no need to have insulators stand off more than that and you don't want a big gap between; just enough to hold the 2 separate. A 4 Joule energizer is ok but it's more than you need for a 1/2 acre so if you want to use a 2 Joule that's fine too. If you're serious about keeping bears out I recommend 5 hot wires spaced about 8-9" apart; if you only have 2 wires there is likelihood that a bear might only touch the wires with their thick coat and not receive a shock. Wire and insulators are relatively inexpensive so more is better to ensure nose contact :) Best wishes!
Hi, what would be average cost per meter?
Will paw shocks work !
I have read about grizzly chewing on the fiberglass poles
So professional and didactic 😊
In addition to these measures, I think it is important that conservation societies and government parks departments, should work to keep wild areas replete with their food sources, instead of destroying their food sources.
If I'm running 5 wires on a temporary fence is .7 joules enough for my fence?
on a very small area it should be ok, but I prefer to use a higher Joule output for bears to ensure an effective deterrent :)
Great Job!
It looks like you have two solar panels hooked up to one energizer unit. I have a Parmak Magum 12 Solar energizer and it doesn't seem to charge enough if we have several days of cloudy skies. I'll like to add a second solar panel to keep it charged. Can you tell me how you did this on your fence?
unfortunately I didn't connect them myself... I think ask an electrician? or I know that the Parmak Solar 12s have a trickle charger that you can plug in to keep them fully charged all winter. If you're in Canada a good place to order these from is: www.margosupplies.com/ca-en/product/parmak-taper-charger/
Great video...:-)
We are looking for the best way to electrify a mobile chicken tractor. We have chicken wire and corrugated sheeting around the outside of the wooden frame and plastic grid around the inside. We are connecting a solar energizer to the outer mesh / steel shell and the plastic grid keeps the birds away from the charged shell. This gives protection from everything that tries to gain access to the chicks from weasels to bears. Our problem is that the whole frame is electric and therefore we are loosing power as the energy goes to ground through the wooden frame . The energizer normally generates 10,000 volts on our normal fencing but drops to 5,000 volts with this system. Any Ideas on how to insulate the frame would be appreciated.
what about adding a strip of rubber matting to the bottom of the frame?
Very interesting, thank you.
If I am only fencing a small area, will using a more powerful energizer result in a more powerful shock? Fence is for bears
to keep bears out of a small area use an energizer with minimum 1 Joule and 7,000 volts output. You can put a higher powered energizer on a small area but the above specs will be effective.
I have a 15 joule Gallagher M1500 protecting my 1/2 acre back yard. Animals will remember the sharp jolt they receive and tend to stay away rather than constantly trying to get past the fence. I love mine !
Great video!
Thanks for the movie.
Do you suggest aluminum wire or high tensile wire for bears? I read that aluminum is 4 times more conductive, but high tensile steel is a lot stronger? I will be using this to protect beehives from black bears.
Both considerations are true. Aluminum will be lighter to use and probably easier for a smaller area like a bee yard. If the area is dry, be sure to install a good grounding system (at least 2 ground rods) and possibly use an alternating hot/cold wire design with at least 4 hot and 3 cold wires and the bottom wire should not be more than 6-8" from the earth to prevent digging, but if you see signs of digging you may need to add another lower wire or install a grounded metal mesh flat on the earth around the outside of the fence. If you use the grounded mesh flat on the earth, you can use only 5-6 hot wires for the fence itself. Either way ensures that a bear receives an effective shock in dry conditions :)
do you have a video about electric fences for wolves? Thank you
you could try this! th-cam.com/video/Vgenq9d2scI/w-d-xo.html
@@grizzlybearsolutions thank you very much. i appreciate it.
Great vid, thank you!!! 😃
What's the highest voltage you can use to keep bears away?
7000-9000 volts is totally effective. There’s no need to go any higher. Just have a well constructed fence an ensure skin contact ie: make sure the bear can’t slip under or in between wires without making skin contact!
@@grizzlybearsolutions got it
thankyou.
What if the bear an electrician?
when you added hot wires to preexisting metal mesh fencing, are you connection the ground to the mesh fencing and making it the ground?
Yes. In the case in the video the mesh was already dug into the earth to prevent smaller predators from digging under so I did not need to. But in other cases of adding hot wires to preexisting metal mesh, I use the existing mesh as the 'ground' wires by connecting it directly to the ground rods as you mention. Then if a bear pushes the hot wire against the metal mesh fence it receives that instant strong and effective shock even in dry soils, and keeps the area well protected. Of course it's super necessary to ensure that the hot wires are otherwise kept well away from the metal mesh or they would ground out and you would lose the charge :)
Thank you some much for the fast reply!! So, my plan now, to cover both ways to deliver the ground, is to put in a single grounding rod (instead of the recommended 3 at 10ft intervals) and run a jumper from the ground rod to the old mesh fencing... then using extended insulators to run hot wires at a 8 inch spacing. thanks for the great video and reply, you can add an "assist" to your 130+ installations :)
sure, glad to help! It's well over 200 fences to date! really it's a win-win for both the food producer and the bears :)
Hi:I have a crawl space access door and bear breaks the door and goes into the crawl space. Do you know how I can install electric fence for the door to keep the bear out?
Hi Ali, you can put a wire screen mesh (stucco wire would work well) across the door and hang the screen mesh off of plastic electric fence insulators so it is not touching the door. Then wire from the fence energizer to the screen mesh and it will deliver a shock if the bear (or anybody else!) pushes on the door. You will have to turn off the energizer each time you want to access the crawl space, but it will keep the bears out! I hope this helps :)
Great Video & excellent information! Thanks!,,,,
Which fence tester do you have in this video? Thanks in advance.
it's a no-name brand that costs about $70 CAD... you can purchase digital voltmeters that are compatible with your energizer so you can turn energizer on/off remotely; these would be super handy! :)
I'd like to come stay in your area for a week or two.
What voltage is running through the fence?
I like my digital voltmeter to read at least 7,000 volts
What area are you in? Looks like BC.
Yes, it is in the West Kootenays
2:51 plug-in more consistent charge
Nice
where is the "install" in the title?
I use electric fence as a verb (action) so install is redundant in a short title :)
Few cheap chargers have an output of 7000 volts.
Don’t the bear dig under fences?
see 4:04 in the video where I talk about preventing digging :)
6:40 T-post and insulators
7:31 gate detail
I wouldn’t ever live anywhere where dangerous predictors such as bears freely roam .
bears are really quite polite when they don't access foods near us, and it's really surprising easy to coexist :)
No such place exists. Crocodiles, poisonous snakes, wild boars and more in south. Up North you have bears, wolves, big cats. Midwest is probably the safest place against larger predators but certain regions have rattle snakes, bob cats, and massive amounts of predators that will go after chickens and goats, but not anything much going after humans. Other humans are probably the worst risk.
Rather general ok video but took 2 mins to get to the point. I'm frustrated that no charger I've look at is rated in volts, only joules, so the 1.0 joule advice is useful.
А как же дети?
if a child touches the fence they will receive a shock that they won't like, but there is no harm; it's a bit like a bee sting for < one second but without any longer term inflamation and swelling. It is of course best to teach children to not touch the fence and put up signs so people avoid the fenced area :)
One bear may be Einstein among other bears and find the switch, then put it OFF!!:)))
حلو
I love you
No harm to animals.
Well stay out of their territory every day they have less and less territory.😡
This information is for people who live in bear habitat, which includes the majority of land outside of urban areas across N. America (and even within some urban areas!). If we can't learn to coexist with bears and other wildlife, they don't have a chance.
Great video! Thanks!