'I'm sure he had a feast': Hungry bear destroys hives, leaves sticky mess for Quebec honey producer

​A hungry bear fresh out of hibernation has left one Quebec beekeeper and honey producer scrambling to save his bees and 28 hives.

André Talbot, co-owner of Rucher Mellifera in Saint-Norbert, Que., was stunned when he got a phone call Wednesday from his son, who went to check on the hives.

"He noticed right away…that a bear had gone through and ripped open the hives that were still wrapped in winter wrap," Talbot told CBC Radio's Daybreak.

"There were frames of bees all over the place. Surprisingly some of those frames still had bees in them, alive."

Talbot rushed over in his truck to help his son save the bees as fast as they could.

"There were bees in the snow still alive, so we scrambled and picked up everything that we could."

The task required full protective gear, because the bees were still on edge.

"We had to put our bee suits on because they were upset and somewhat aggressive to intruders, as you might guess. But when we started putting the hives back together, the bees that could still fly flew back into the hives by instinct."

'An absolute feast'

Talbot suspects one hungry black bear is to blame. He noticed large paw prints in the snow and neighbours told him they saw a bear wandering along the nearby stream in recent days.

He thinks the sweet smell inside the hives lured it over.

"What they're really after is the protein in the hives. By this time of year, the queens have started laying and there's a lot of brood in the hives and the bears are really going after the brood. It's rich in protein and they're delicious so for them it's a feast — an absolute feast."

Given that not all of the hives were destroyed — some were only slightly damaged — Talbot thinks the bees put up a good fight against the hungry mammal.

Besides saving the hives, Talbot's other main concern is keeping the bear away.

He has an electric fence around his property and will call in the provincial wildlife ministry, which sets a trap to catch the bear and releases it about 20 kilometres away.

Talbot's hoping that'll be far enough to keep the bear away from his sweet nectar.

"I'm sure he had a feast. The risk when they find a site like this is they'll come back and come back and come back."