Most of my bears are taken in the spring when it is starting to get warm and the bugs are starting to come out. I like to get my bears peeled out and quartered and hung in game bags as soon as possible. Since I live in a remote area in Alaska our only power is a smalll12 volt system we can most of our bear meat with in a day or two. In cooler weather we have left bear meat hanging as long as 7 days.