In the mountainous and heavily wooded areas of Pennsylvania, bears are a serious threat to beekeeping operations.
Bears can do a great deal of damage to hives and equipment in a short period of time.
They normally visit the apiaries at night, smashing the hives to get to the brood and honey and scattering frames and equipment around the apiary. Once bears locate an apiary, they return again and again, and it becomes exceedingly difficult to control their marauding behavior. Conflicts between bees and bears are not new, but in recent years the problem has greatly escalated. Increases in urbanization, cultivated acreage, and the trend toward monocultural agriculture have rapidly reduced available bee pasture and suitable bear habitats. Black bears once ranged over all of Pennsylvania.