Bear problems...apple trees

[ProcraftMike]

Besides and electric fence, anyone have any ideas on keeping bears from breaking all of my apple tree branches? I am thinking the only option I have, is to knock all of the apples off the trees, until the trees get big enough where bears won't bust the branches off. I was checking some of my apple trees yesterday and some have the main leader busted off.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

High velocity lead

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I knock all the apples off my trees in the fall after hunting.

 

[Prof.Kent]

Hang grenades from the tree limbs painted like apples. Don't walk in the orchard on windy days.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I live in bear country and have been planting apples for 20 years....I gave up a few years ago. IMO, it's absolutely futile to try to grow apples where there are lots of bears unless you're willing to spend a small fortune and decades of labor protecting them.

Even if you get your trees to big enough that bears won't break the lower branches off, they will then just climb the tree to reach the apples. They will break the upper branches off and they will continue to damage the main leader. The weight of a decent size bear in the crown of an apple will also topple a mature tree.

I've seen some people make spiked mats of plywood they lay around apples to prevent bears from reaching them. That's a lot of work.

 

[VTer]

I struggle with this as well. I dont have a great idea except volume. Just keep planting and accept some losses. They dont usually kill my trees and the trees seem to eventually recover. They have broken off some central leaders. They may not look perfect but the trees are pretty tough. My plan has been to just keep planting and hope that each year a couple more make it through.

 

[Diesel5610]

Still looking for an answer to that myself. I hate the idea of not planting trees just because I love apple trees and the concentration of wildlife around a good one. Unfortunately that wildlife includes bears. I have older trees that hold up to bears being in them. We do lose some branches but we clean up the breaks and the trees do fine. Those trees were planted 25 years ago before bears were plentiful here. The trees I have planted in the last 10 years have been incident after incident with bears damaging and destroying them and I am starting to wonder if any will reach maturity. Knocking the apples off for several years is about the only solution I can come up with. Not much of a solution as that means I don't get to enjoy the trees and wildlife around them.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

This year to save my trees I had to knock all the apples off mid September, the bear wouldnt leave them alone. I dont mind so much if the apples can stay atleast until after deer hunting. Bear have been a thorn in my side for years now. They arent afraid of people, sure they will run into the woods when I go out there, but as I walk out of the orchard, they are walking back in. Dicks!

 

[Tree Spud]

Set-up perimeter trip alarms with flashbangs. It will get their attention ...

Trip Alarm

 

[Telemark]

Do you all live where there is no bear hunting?

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Do you all live where there is no bear hunting?

I personally have no interest in hunting bears. They are nothing I want to spend my time chasing. And unless you bait, the odds of one walking by are very, very low. I've thought about allowing somebody else to hunt my land during the early Sept. bear season, but it would have to be somebody I trust.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

My land is in a county the WIDNR thinks bear and wolves are extinct and deer are in an over abundance. Unfortunately they are wrong on both accounts. There is a 7 year wait to get a bear license, in order to get the points you need. I had talked to local bear hunters and they basically told me that they have so much prime land to hunt, people practically pay them to take a bear off their land. And they said they will bait, and bring it many more bear, and just take the largest bear. Which most of the time aren’t your problem bear. It’s the young males.

 

[rocksnstumps]

^^^ that and you will get sows with cubs to show up if the pickns are easy. Can't hunt them and they like to entertain themselves by pushing stuff over and climbing and breakn chit.....cause they get bored and no corollas in the vicinity to play with instead

 

[Buckly]

100 acres of corn will severely cut down your bear issues with apple trees.

 

[Apple Junkie]

I have apples and I have bears, so I have bears in my apples.

I have made peace with the fact bears will do some damage to my trees, but deer, coons, beaver, cold, wind, and drought take a toll too. I fence my trees, which I think helps, but is defiantly not foolproof. I knock fruit off my smaller trees, and pick the apples off the lower branches of trees that are starting to get a little bigger. Finally, I am just beginning to put stove pipe sections around the trunk of my larger trees… a trick I picked up here from Appleman and Willy. Personally, I think the cubs and the coons are the worst offenders, with the bears getting most of the blame. I may not have the bear density others have, but this combination of techniques seems to work. And, I just keep planting a few more trees every year to spread the risk.

Below, an example of Willy’s guard, and my stove pipe clad Ida Red. I think it keeps the coons and cubs out of it, and seems to deter mama bear too.

 

[rocksnstumps]

100 acres of corn will severely cut down your bear issues with apple trees.

Actually wish this was true but not. Had corn fields on 3 sides of me this year probably totally 140 acres. It's not like the bears live on my land but 2 or 3 visits during prime acorn and apple time and chit gets tore up. Do that several yrs in a row and your former best trees are all busted up. Sure they will grow back good in ten yrs. Just what I wanted to wait for....

 

[Telemark]

I personally have no interest in hunting bears. They are nothing I want to spend my time chasing. And unless you bait, the odds of one walking by are very, very low. I've thought about allowing somebody else to hunt my land during the early Sept. bear season, but it would have to be somebody I trust.

Well you could probably find someone here. Do you have bears on your apple trees in September?

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Well you could probably find someone here. Do you have bears on your apple trees in September?

Yes, they are in the orchards Sept. through late October. I've thought about allowing somebody in. But then they on my land and in some of my prime deer hunting areas just 3 or 4 weeks before our bow opener...I wrestle with my desire to reduce bear numbers and my desire to maintain unmolested deer habitat prior to the season.

And really, the point has become moot in the past 5, 6, 7 years or so. Not sure if it's climate change, lack of bees, a blight or a rust that blew threw...or a toxic cocktail of them all...but something is not right with the apples on my land. Hundreds of beautiful wild apples of all age classes in old orchards and along field edges have lost their vigor. They look dry and bony all summer. They stopped producing nice crops about 6 year ago. Any small handful of apples they do produce are on the ground by end of Sept. early October. I used to be able to walk into those orchards in early November and walk over a layer of apples on my way to my stand. When those gotten eaten I would then give the trees a shake and more would rain down. My nights in the stand were routinely filled by watching deer eat apples. Not anymore. I've had to totally rethink the way and places I hunt as apples are no longer a reliable food source form me early in the fall.

 

[ProcraftMike]

Thanks for the responses. I figured some new, high tech. device did not come out yet....lol. I actually had someone baiting a couple corners of my land this year for bear hunting, but all bear activity was after dark. Where my land is, it takes about 6-8 years to draw a bear tag. I have been applying. I will have to knock the apples off by early September next year. It seems like when the native vegetation starts to die off, they get into my apple trees each year.

 

[Diesel5610]

Do you all live where there is no bear hunting?

They hunt them pretty hard around my PA farm but the bear population seems to be growing faster than the bear harvest. They have increased the hunting days for bear and opened it in early muzzleloader and archery and the numbers are still increasing where we are. I shot one several years ago and wish I had some desire to shoot another one but I don't.