Bears

Bears are not a threat in most places this book will be read, and if you keep bees somewhere without them, you can skip straight past this chapter with a clear conscience. Where bears do range, black bears in North America and brown bears across parts of Europe, the risk is not gradual the way robbing or wasps are: a single overnight visit can flatten an entire small apiary, bears eating both the honey and the protein-rich brood.

The only defence that reliably works is an electric fence built to a bear-rated specification, not a hobby-garden one: five to nine strands of wire, evenly spaced, on an energiser delivering at least six thousand volts under load.

Anything weaker is a fence a determined bear will simply push through once, and remember was not worth respecting.