I'm going to assume you are encountering bears:

Have you tried putting pepper around your hive? As they sniff around the ground perhaps they'll sniff it up.
Anything that might be a deterrant could work.

I have lost one hive so far, and that was from bad management on my part.

I know bees have problems - mites, colony collapse disorder. There are solutions for mites - some mechanical, some natural essential oils, some synthetic chemical. I haven't treated fro mites yet. Colony collapse... I'm no biologist or etymologist - but it seems like the problems are cropping up in large beekeeping businesses. These are the equivalent of feed lot operations with cattle or pigs. Might just be stress and population density. I also might just be kidding myself. These large operations intensely work those bees - pollination contracts, etc. It is their business, and like all businesses they work those hives as hard as a freight company works their trucks. Just my ill-informed opinion...

Wow - bears - they can be a real problem. Even chain link fence won't stop a bear. I think of you're a hunter, you'd refer to the hives as bait. Maybe motion detector lights and noise makers? If not a vault, maybe a bear proof shed? I see old barns around here - they look like log cabins with every other log missing. They were made to protect livestock from bears.Wouldn't need to be as big as a barn to contain a bee yard.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
Pat

Bee-Pipes-- are the honey bees coming back and what is the short term and long range forcast for the honey bees? One more question , when we make the move to the cabin (3400 ft ela.) I would like to start a little honey buisness but we also have quite a few bears around. Any ideas how to protect the bees short of a vault?