Bears, cougars and more!

We live in an area filled with bears, cougars, wolves and more. 

The feeling when the neighbour calls and makes us aware of a wolf kill, or bear kill it is always a struggle. Before we moved out here, having 2 small kids I googled, I searched, I thought, I asked so much about what I could do to prevent predators coming in to our property. We now have 3 young kids, under 5. Recently my lab husky passed away from cancer and that leaves with our hunting German Pointer. (She's a little bit of princess when it comes to the cold.) So no LGD at this point, I'm working on my husband! However dogs aren't all. Friends of ours, have large guardian dogs and twice now have had a bear take a goat. They sneaky!

Luckily we are fully page wire fenced so that serves as a deterrent. No coyote problems yet!I do always carry bear spray when I go out at night. We have what we call our trappers flashlight (spotlight and so bright) At the entrance of our house we keep bear spray, a flashlight and an airhorn. 

In Nov 2024 we had a cougar come over our fence and take my best ewe. So in all my searching for ways to keep predators out this is what I've come up with! 

FOOD

The most common but food, feed, carcesses away. We keep our feed in our 'tack' shed and doors always closed. We do soak feed in there for the pigs and so far no problems. Anything we give our chickens we keep in closed garbage bins. When we rented out here, we had a black bear and the culprit was (Whoops) sourdough bread that hadn't turned out that I had left out and cans! RINSE your cans if your bottles are left outside. That way the sugar don't turn and become an attractant for bears. 

LIGHTS

Motion lights are a big one for us. We have one on the house, on the garage and working on one at the tack shed. I have ones that I can siren for my phone to scare anything off if I hear but can't see! Flashing lights, Christmas lights are a cheaper one that flash and are bright colours to try and keep away some predators. 

RADIO/SOUND

We've recently got a radio, not for music but for the news. Music is rhythmic, and voice sis signalling to animals 'someone' is there'. To turn on the radio at night and using it as another small thing to try and ward off unwanted visitors. WINDCHIMES! Anytime I find one for a good price, I grab one. I have them in the pastures hanging on trees, on the fence and all around the property. Whether a bear rubs on, the sheep, the pigs or the wind blows. Something else to hopefully make an animals question being on our property. 

SMELLS

Another one I dove into was smells. We had a bear on the trail cam, so the next day I made sure to make lots of noise outside and put point sol around our tack shed, on our feed bins and on the fence posts. I tied the pine sol bottle and let it hang on the corner of our sawmill. Bears hate he smell of strong chemicals, and this is another one of my attempts to deter predators. 

Now none of these are tried and true, but they make me feel a little more confident in my efforts to try and keep predators off our property an away from our animals. If you needed some ideas, I hope this helped!!