RE: Will bears kill manchurian crab apple trees, and do deer like their fruit?
In my area we have some old crab apple trees that people planted from many years back. The would clear an area in the mountains and plant some trees. Thing was there were no deer and bear then. Current problems are the areas around the trees have grown and appear to be chocking the apples trees out. Some years they have apples some they don' t. They deer do like the apples and in previous years these areas had been a favorite place of mine to hunt. Especially if other mast is light.
Have also had opportunities to take bear at the trees with my bow. So yes the bears will come to get the apples and like any other apple tree they will climb them and break the limbs down. My suggestion would be to try just a couple of trees to see how they make it against the bear. Older trees that they have broken the limbs on appear to do fine it acts like a pruning to them, but in new trees I am not sure. Where did you find the trees to buy, I might be interested as well.