Honey/Bacon Burn for Bear Bait

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DVXDUDE

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Thinking of giving it a try this year. Looking at hearing some opinions and some success stories.


I have a crapload of bacon gease I've been saving since spring and my buddies old man is a Bee keeper.


I have 5gallon buckets right full with burnt honey, dark coloured honey comb.


Thinking of making the burner from the two tin cans with the wire on the botton. Use a couple little candles on the bottom for heat.....

Just wondering if bears would be hesitant to come in with a new scent around my bait or if its a waste of time...



I currently bait with oats/corn/molasses, popcorn, dogfood and food scraps.
 
Only works if there are bears close enough to smell, while you're burning. ;) I've always seen this as a downside to this, as opposed to a regular bait.

Grizz
 
Depends when you're hunting them? They like protein in the early spring, but sweets in the fall. I've never spent time or money on bear bate when a bag full of bird seed works better. The critters seem to know how much oil is in seeds food.
 
I have been putting out cracked corn to feed a skinny doe with a young fawn and a black bear has eaten the majority of it. He showed the other night ate his fill then slept on the remainder of the pile all night.

I tried the two boxes last year at my deer stand of the honey residue from the honey guy across the road and got nothing coming to it but a pine martin and a red fox for a sniff and a look see.

We have three bears coming around the house at present, compost, garbage, and cracked corn seem to be getting there attention. I keep the garbage locked in an old freezer and do a dump run once or twice a week depending on temperature, they just raid the compost pile at will. Hate to stop feeding the skinny deer.
 
Don't over think it, bears like food and honey burns are a good way to get scent out over a large area. I wouldn't bother if you are already getting activity though, just bait every 2nd night (or smaller ones every night if you can) to keep them interested until you smoke one.

I just use a metal coffee can with some honey in the bottom and put a propane torch on it - taller cans are best for avoiding boil-overs. Usually try and locate my baits in a rocky area so I don't have to worry about forest fires. At first it will just bubble and give off a bit of smoke, but near the end of the burn the smoke will be thick and sweet smelling. On still nights, I have filled up entire valleys with the thick white honey smelling smoke from 1/2 to a full bottle of honey. This smoke lingers a lot and will stick to trees/etc as long as it's not too damp out, so it doesn't just work while you are doing it.

Tried doing similar with used fried chicken grease last year but found I just used a lot more propane and didn't give off as much scent as the honey. Might of just been the stuff I had though, I think it was only lightly used.
 
I had tried the coffee can with a candle at the bottom and a soup can on top of the candle inside the coffee can. It will heat the honey up until it goes black and is bubbling and smoking. I figured bacon gease would work great too.


I start baiting in 3 weeks and the opener is a month and a half away. Only going to do it when I'm in the stand, I thought this might entice them out a bit earlier than right at dark all the time....
 
strain some of the grease and load it into a dollar store super soaker and the paint the trees as high up as you can. saturate the ground in front of your barrel so they track it out into the forest for others to follow in.
Use the honey for bait when you are actually hunting.

if you want the bears to come earlier you have to reduce the amount of bait so that first come is first served. The honey would be perfect for that. Put an ice cream pail full in when you sit. Won't take many times for the big fella showing up to the smell and no grub to start coming earlier to get his share.
 
Kitchen grease/used cooking oil is an old stand-by to bring them in. Make a friend in a fast food restaurant and offer to haul away their kitchen waste. Stale donuts are good too. I once videoed a bear that had a distinct preference for chocolate crullers. He would paw thru a whole pile of donuts until he found them. Beaver carcasses are excellent as well. They are good and greasy and the bears will really work at getting them. We used to wire a few to trees around the bait site and found it pretty amusing to see how hard Mr Bruin would work to get them free.
 
Ive tried this so many times and never had it work yet and I've done it at baits that have been hit. I would not waist my time no more. setup a bait with the honey and only allow it to be slowly taken...
 
You could try making a bear candle. Put your bacon grease in a pie plate or shallow tin, saturate a strip of paper towel or short piece of yarn (this will be your wick), put it in the grease and light it up.
 
Never tried the honey burns, but the last time I baited, I used the microwave popcorn trick that some one had told me here on Gunnutz. Right before you head to the stand, pop a bag of microwave popcorn, carry to the stand and open the bag on top of the bait when you get there. That fresh hot popcorn smell fills the area. If there is bears nearby, they will come.
 
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