Owners at the Heritage Bee Company in Mulmur Township were woken by noises coming from their chicken coop Tuesday night.
Debbie Gray and her husband rushed outside to find that their chicken coop and equipment used for beekeeping and had been ransacked by a predator.
“A whole wall of the chicken coop had been peeled away and then there was just carnage,” owner Debbie Gray told Global News. “There were dead chickens everywhere, it was just awful.”
It wasn’t until later when Gray and her husband checked surveillance footage that they discovered their flock had been attacked by a large, adolescent black bear.
Gray says there was damage to their beekeeping equipment, honey frames and about half of their heritage chicken flock had been killed during the attack.
“We recognize and understand that bears are in the environment, but you never think that it’s going to happen in your backyard,” she said.
According to Gray, they have had run-ins with other predators, including coyotes, raccoons and mice at their various business locations, but have never encountered a bear.
Gray says she and her husband worked to secure their remaining birds and equipment and promptly reported the incident to Bear Wise and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF).
According to Gray, the ministry delivered a live bear trap to their property in the hopes of humanely capturing the bear and relocating it to a more appropriate habitat further north.
However, since the trap was installed, the bear has not returned to the property.
“We’re hoping the trap works, because it is really the best outcome for everyone including the bear,” Gray said.
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In the meantime, Gray says she and her husband have taken the advice of the MNRF and have ordered electric fencing to protect their hives and equipment stored outside.
And she says while their chicken coop was already very secure, they will be taking extra precautions to ensure nothing like this ever happens to their flock again.
“The biggest thing that the ministry said is to minimize the attraction, because once a bear is on an unnatural food source, it is very difficult for them to get off it,” she said. “And that’s not a great pathway for the bear.”
More information on preventing bear encounters can be found on the province’s Bear Wise website.