Bees and bear - a near miss I think

Today I traveled 140 miles each way to pick peaches off my tree in another state.  She's crazy, you might say.  But in my defense, I planted that tree about 7 years ago.  This is the first year I've had this kind of crop.  In fact, it could be argued that this was my first crop.  And what a crop it was.  The branches of the tree aren't that big yet so thankfully they were flexible.  Because they were bent to the ground, laden with fruit.  I was so afraid that the chipmunks, birds and other wild beasts would get the peaches before I could get back there and afraid they'd get overly ripe too.  Anyway I came home with a large box of peaches that I now need to prepare.  I also left some for my neighbor up there as well as my ex tenants.

I will freeze them because I have a large freezer and it's easy to do.  Then, over the winter, I can make crisps, pie, cobbler and whatever recipes I can find that could use their wonderful flavor.  My daughter wants to add them to her smoothies too and that will be delicious.  What fun it is in the fall, getting the harvest in and "putting it up".

But I digress from the subject of this post.

My office is on the second story of my house with a bathroom off that. The bathroom has a nice sized window looking out at the back yard.  I happened to be looking out the window just after returning home with my peaches and saw a black bear at the edge of my lawn!

I still hadn't unpacked the car where my camera was so I just stepped out on the porch corner to see where it was.  It was to the side of my shed...to the right...between that and the fence around the beehives.  He stopped  and was looking around and then spotted me.  I asked him what his plans were and he turned and ran up the hill behind the house.  I am sure that if I hadn't gone out, he would have gone toward that fence.  I sort of wish I had watched it all play out but I was too afraid of losing my bees!

Now is the time, I think, when the bears are out trying to find as much food as possible to fatten up for the winter.  I was very glad that I had changed the batteries on my electric fence so that if our bear friend did touch it, he or she would be happy to find food elsewhere.  At least that's my hope!
 
I sure am glad I didn't try to have hives without that fence or I'd have been doomed...no doubt about it in my mind.