Shaking the tree's

4wanderingeyes

5 year old buck +
The past few falls/winters I have had bear damage my apple trees. I know most of you guys here like to have apples hang as late as possible, me, after hunting season, I am not interested in having apples on my trees anymore. Between the bear, and raccoons climbing on my trees and breaking them, I decided I wasnt leaving the tree bait on the trees after I am done hunting. Last winter after I had to cut a 6 year old tree down about 60% from a bear trying to climb to grab apples, I had enough. I called the local DNR, and I asked them if I shook and knocked down all the apples off my trees would that be considered baiting, or feeding, and he told me that they are my trees, and I can do whatever I wanted with them, when I wanted. I even asked him if I could shake them up before hunting season, or would that for sure be baiting, again he said they are your trees, do as you wish with them.

I am not confident all DNR would agree with that, but I didnt need to shake trees to call in the deer, I just wanted to not draw in bear, and coon after deer season, so this year, after season I shook all the apples off of my trees, in hopes the bear will not be as drawn to climb and break my trees. Does anyone else do this that lives in bear country to protect your trees? My trees are mostly in the 4-6 leaf, and cant take much damage to kill them. Maybe once they are 8-10 leaf, I wont worry as much, but I am sick of replacing a couple trees every year because of the bears. I only have 22 trees, and about half produce, so when they kill, or knock back a couple every year, it hurts!
 
My camp is in the bulls-eye for bear in Pa. It's probably a good idea to shake your trees empty if you can. Damn bears tore the lid off a chest freezer - hinges and all - a few years back at a neighboring camp because it smelled an empty hot dog package/wrapper left in the chest freezer.

Pulling/shaking apples off the trees until they get big enough to survive a climbing attempt by bears is just being prudent. I chose some of our apples and crabs on MM-111 and B-118 for earlier production, but also some of the same apples & crabs on Antonovka and P-18 so we end up with big, woody, full-sized 30 ft. trees in the future. Those will be able to take bears climbing and not sustain too much damage. The MM-111 and B-118 trees are a "fill-in" of sorts to get us to mature, full-sized ones. And if those "smaller" trees make it to maturity, they're just a bonus. They're feeding deer and other critters already, so they're a plus. But cleaning off the trees is a safer bet, IMO.

Caveat: We've had bears just reach up and pull on the branches even in the spring with no fruit even starting yet. I guess just for something to do?? Damage for no reason.
 
Bears are a real problem until trees are older and even then they do decent damage. They will still climb the tree and break scaffold limbs while they are doing their thing in the tree. I knock the apples off our trees until they are pretty large and the bears still do some considerable damage some years. I have just kept planting trees hoping to outpace them. Hoping they can't get them all :emoji_grimacing:.
 
Had some bad bear damage last year on late hanging pears that are 7th leaf. Hated to see it.
In PA, shaking trees is CLEARLY considered baiting if you are hunting anywhere in the vicinity of the trees (I think it’s silly but that’s the way it is) but I give mine a real good shake after we’re done hunting for the season.
 
I’m glad I don’t have to worry about bears here, or baiting violations for shaking apples and pears off my trees.
M111 seems to do well in my area with loamy clay, smaller dwarf trees have trouble with our wind and for wildlife use I’d rather have a bigger stronger tree.
I like late hanging apples and pears up to a point and I guess that point is that at some time I do want most to drop so wildlife can get at and use them. Trees that hold through the winter are great for birds but don’t help the rest of the critters for winter food much if they can’t get to it.
 
Just wait til the feral hogs make there way there............

bill
 
I am in the same boat as you 4wandering. Like you, I shake all the apples I can from my smaller trees to avoid the temptation for bears or coons to climb them. I do leave one apple so I can get an idea of how long it might hang going forward. I have cages around them, so I do think that does discourage them somewhat. By January, I don't see any bear activity where I am, but I just might have gotten lucky so far.

In the back of my mind, I am tinkering with the idea of using some sort of solar powered fencing around each individual tree. A farmer friend uses one now to keep the deer out of his sweet corn, but he fences a quarter acre or so, not individual trees. The solar power devices are not too expensive at a place like Tractor Supply. It hurts to invest 6 or 7 years growing a tree, only to have it wrecked by a wandering bear, or pack of coons.

As to the baiting issue, I had a DEC guy tell me the same thing... as long as these are apples from the existing trees, and you're not bringing them in, it is not baiting.
 
I'm still pulling/shaking when it comes to bears. Our camp has too much money invested and we have TONS of time involved in the trees' care. The lowest fruits are the main ones to pull off so they aren't an easy attractant. Don't want to leave easy fruit "candy" to tempt them. Our oldest full-sized apple trees (un-caged) always have fruit hanging out on the ends of the limbs and at the very tops of the trees where bears can't go. The big, thick scaffold limbs can take a bear's weight without breaking, so they can eat only so far without falling because of bending limbs. I've seen them fall out from around 15 - 17 ft. up and they hit the ground hard - and then run like hell!!

As Diesel5610 said in post #3, I also tried to plant plenty of trees to outpace the bears. Our food plots and acorn crops help keep them off the trees - so far.
 
I do have plans for a future apple tree expansion, but it is a couple years out yet, other priorities. In the spring I will be replacing 1 that was snapped in half last fall, and I have a spot for about 3 more, to bring my total, up to 25. That has been my goal, and to have a staggered age of trees, and so far the bear are helping me with that. My expansion will only be about 15 more trees, but I think that will be more then enough for my small parcel of land. I also have a few random trees on the home site. I also thought of an electric fence.
 
I like your thinking 4wandering. Keep us posted if ya figure out how to fix the bear issue... same here.
 
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