Bear wanders into Ohio apiary, eats entire beehive
"Sweet Tooth Strikes: Curious Bear Raids Beekeeper’s Hive for a Honey-Filled Feast"
May 8 (UPI) — An Ohio beekeeper received an alert from his surveillance cameras that showed his apiary being raided by another local resident: a bear.
Jeff Bonner, who has been beekeeping for just over a year in Bazetta Township, said his motion-activated cameras alerted him to activity around his hives.
“I looked at my bee cameras and I thought, ‘Holy smokes, there’s a bear in my bees,'” he told WKBN-TV.
Bonner rushed to his apiary, but found the bear was already gone — along with one of his hives.
“I found the hive way out there in the woods. The frames I found were basically clean. It looks like he ate the frame, the wax that was there, and the bees. Everything was gone,” Bonner told WFMJ-TV.
He said the hive had been home to 10,000-50,000 bees.
“[The wildlife officer] recommended putting peanut butter on it, so if he licks it or sniffs it and gets shocked in the face. That tends to make them hesitant to go to the fence. Otherwise, they’re pretty stubborn, they’ll take the shock to get to the honey,” Bonner said.
Bonner said he will remain vigilant.
“He’s full and he knows where the honey is,” Bonner said. “He’ll be back because he knows there’s food here.”
