![\"Bear](\"https:\/\/d3355vjhs3bhr1.cloudfront.net\/inline-images\/2025_11_bear%20cub%20in%20chicken%20coop.jpg\"\/)
Bear cub gets cozy in chicken coop.<\/p>\nA Richer resident had quite the adventure this week after discovering an unexpected guest in her yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stephanie Balsillie says a bear cub showed up around 11 a.m. on November 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0didn’t\u00a0notice it right away, but my dogs did.\u00a0And they were out in their pen in the yard, and they were just barking and barking and barking.\u00a0And\u00a0so,\u00a0I\u00a0went outside, I\u00a0didn’t\u00a0see anything. But once I left to go for my afternoon bus run, since\u00a0I’m\u00a0a school bus driver, and that was around 3 o’clock, I noticed there was a bear cub in the tree by our chicken coop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she returned home, the bear was still there. She and her husband tried to scare it away but had no luck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would not budge. It would just look at us and lay back down. And so, I did go online on the Ste. Anne’s General Group, and I asked for some suggestions because it was my first time dealing with this, and my concern at that point was just more of my chickens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Members of the group reassured her that the cub would likely\u00a0leave\u00a0on its own if left alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we did. We carried on with our evening, took our kids to their lessons and at about 8:30 p.m. on Monday when we came back home, it was gone. So, we just assumed, okay,\u00a0it’s\u00a0gone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next morning there was still no sign of the cub, but by that evening, something seemed off\u00a0as four chickens were perched up on their front deck.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m\u00a0like, well,\u00a0that’s\u00a0unusual because they should be in the coop.\u00a0It’s\u00a0already sundown. So, my husband came home with our food, we ate supper, and then when he went out after dinner, to go check the coop, and he found the cub in the coop with our other five chickens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bear cub gets cozy in chicken coop.<\/p>\n
Balsillie contacted Black Bear Rescue, who\u00a0advised her to\u00a0call conservation officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were out here within 40 minutes. We captured the cub, and it was so smooth. He said it was the easiest capture that\u00a0they’ve\u00a0ever done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Baby](\"https:\/\/d3355vjhs3bhr1.cloudfront.net\/inline-images\/Baby%20bear%20in%20chicken%20coop%202%20-%20Stephanie%20Balsillie.jpg\"\/)
Bear cub is ready to be transported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Concerned about the cub, she reached out to conservation the next day and learned that it was underweight and\u00a0would not\u00a0have survived hibernation on its own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got notifications from the conservation that it was on its way to the Black Bear Rescue Centre in Stonewall. So,\u00a0it’s\u00a0currently there. It is in its new home until, I believe July, from what the Rescue Centre said. And yes,\u00a0I’m\u00a0assuming\u00a0it’s\u00a0doing good, but at least\u00a0it’s\u00a0in a safe place now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the\u00a0cub\u2019s\u00a0visit was short-lived, Balsillie says it made an impression on her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a mother, the minute I seen it, and knowing that it was all by itself, it really broke my heart. And finding out that it was going to the Rescue Centre, because that was my hopes, I was filled with joy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, she says the family feels more at ease knowing there is no longer a bear in their yard,\u00a0though their chickens are still a little on edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were still perched up on my front deck last night, so I need to try to show them that it’s safe now to go back into their coop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With files from Carly Koop<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Richer resident had quite the adventure this week after discovering an unexpected guest in her yard.\u00a0 Stephanie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-268627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}