Raising chickens or trying to raise vegetables in a normal, sunny summer can be difficult; in a rainy, cloudy summer, next to impossible. Blights and bugs, bears and deer, raccoons, slugs, and mildews abound. Everyone has a story.

Just last month, a black bear crept into our barnyard, crushed a window screen, and crawled into our chicken coop, resulting in six casualties: two Barred Rock hens, one Rhode Island Red, and three squashed geranium plants from my window box. The bear left paw prints the size of a man’s hand on the boards of the coop.

After a quick call to Fish and Game, we reinforced the window with stock wire and boards, filled recycled tuna cans with ammonia, placed them on a shelf under the window and, cleaned up all the feathers. (The obvious question arose: if ammonia discourages bears why would they want to invade a chicken coop?) Because it was an easy strategy, we went with it.

Ten days later, I went to open the coop door, only to discover the leading edge had been cracked and split by what looked like an unsuccessful bear attack. This time, no dead hens, but the door required surgery and a splint.

A few days after this, I discovered bear scat while walking around the barnyard. This was not Baby Bear’s! It definitely looked as if Papa Bear had been about in the night.

So now, not only do we make sure the front door to the coop is latched seven ways to Sunday each night, but we also screw down the chickens’ doorway that slides on a rope pull. One good swipe of that paw and it would have opened wide although it would have required squeezing through. When I think of all the times in the past I forgot and left the coop wide open at night...

The three surviving hens seem fine now, but after their first fright they were definitely traumatized and hesitated to leave their pen for grazing and scratching. We talked gently to them and fed them live Japanese beetles, which they love. Pretty soon their chicken brains adjusted and thought they had always been a trio.

The Japanese beetle is a big problem in our gardens. It has no natural predators and loves green beans, hollyhocks, roses, and hot weather. The sound of tapping on a tin can has conditioned the chickens to come running to the garden when they hear it. I can hear their little feet pounding the ground as they respond to my tap-tap-tap. Who knew chickens had such noisy footsteps?

If I bend the plant stems down to their level, they will jump up to snatch the coppery-colored critters in their beaks. Shaking plants with beetles often results in an orgy of scratching and pecking in the area under the plants to scoff up the destructive beetles. Sometimes, I just load the beetles into my tin can and deliver them in bunches. By doing this once or twice a day, we have cut down on our beetle population dramatically.

Letting chickens run free can be a problem on a couple of fronts. First, there are the little piles of chicken droppings to avoid on the bottom of your shoes. Then, the hens may do some “accidental” plant removal if they are allowed to scratch in vegetable and flower gardens.

So far this year, we’ve had enough rain to dissolve much of the former, and because I didn’t let them run free until plants were larger, the latter problem hasn’t been so bad. Scratch one lavender transplant and everything else seems okay. I thought I might cover the kale and Swiss chards with a wire enclosure, but they haven’t done well with all the midsummer rain, so no problem there.

If only keeping the bears out of the corn and coop were so simple. By searching online for information regarding bear problems, I’ve learned bears that interfere with people’s gardens and chickens are often dealt with harshly. My own reactions involve reinforcing structures and remembering that humans actually cause the problem by putting out trash and garbage any curious bear would want to investigate.

Since I don’t count on my birds for meat and eggs, we will survive, but I am not so sure about Papa Bear. Somewhere he will ingratiate himself beyond someone’s tolerance of wildness and that will probably result in his demise. This particular bear has graced the town dump with his presence and has several stops on his “rounds” that also involve other chicken coops, gardens, and possibly camping areas.

My mornings now involve a trip to the chicken yard to see if the bear has come again. So far, so good. His paw prints on the front of the chicken coop serve as a reminder. The chickens and I make our rounds to find beetles and make the most of the remaining days of summer. So, we hope, does the bear.

By Helen Downing, Master Gardener