Keeping Birds Away

[benb89]

Hi all,

Things have been going well and I've been getting stuck in and making real progress. I've been getting stuck into the marestail and keeping on top, added a large raised bed and built a a mini polytunnel. I also have some bee and bug hotels dotted around and whilst they may have made little difference I like to think they will.

My next task is to 'bird Proof' the allotment as much as possible. Putting up cages is not really possible so looking for suggestions. I have put little wind spinners near some of the fruit bushes but need to do alot more. From experience do these spinners help deter the birds? And is the bird scare tape worth purchasing?

Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Stan79]

Birds get used to the same deterrents being in the same place. Better to net the fruit if possible. Just draping netting over the plant in question would work if you don't want to put full cages up.

[nickdub]

Tactics vary a bit with the type of crop and the likely birds involved, so a bit more detail on what you grow would be useful.

[benb89]

From what I can make out, a gooseberry bush, raspberries, apple tree, pear tree, fig tree, plum tree, grape vine and cherry tree. There are also 4 bushes which we are not sure of. The problem I have with netting is the trees, I can put something together for each of the bushes, but the trees and the raspberries this just wont be possible

[nickdub]

As you say netting for the bush fruit is the way to go - its not quite such a commitment as it might seem since the window when the birds attack the fruit is usually limited to about a month when its ripe, so depending on cropping times the gooseberry netting might be usable later in the year for raspberries for example.

Of the rest I grow apples, pears and plums here with many beasties about and with the exception of the plum buds in the Spring before they flower, I've never had any problem. Cherries are another matter and all I can say is that on my site the only practical way to grow them is to get a dwarf tree and plant it somewhere like against a wall where you can fully net it - scarers etc are useless, unless they include somebody with a shotgun and the will to use it.

Grapes and figs aren't a proposition in the open in my area as its not warm enough to ripen them - I grow grapes OK in the greenhouse but don't particularly like figs so haven't bothered - probably some-else will comment on their experience.

[Jay-ell]

Put yourself in the mind of a bird.
Whats your motivation, your raison d'etre?
Are you eating the fruit because it's fruit or is the fruit representative of something else?

If it helps you could dress up in a feathered outfit and flap about the plot but it probably won't.

Or think of it this way - a lot of the fruits are available in summer, when there's hot weather and no rain. These juicy ripe fruits are the perfect size to wet the whistle of a thirsty thrush. Try putting out bird baths and other watering places.

[veggiechicken]

I lose redcurrants to the birds but not blackcurrants or gooseberries.
Only lose a few raspberries.
Some apples are pecked but I don't miss a few - its a good cause as they eat all manner of bugs during the year when I don't have any fruit to offer.
I leave the cherries for the birds - may as well say that as they pinch them every year.
I tried netting the soft fruit one year but the blackbirds would creep underneath and fly up inside the net, where they could eat their fill and pretend they didn't know how to get out.
I don't bother now but let them have their fill.

[fluffybunnyuk]

People tend to go about this with the wrong starting idea. i.e. how do we protect the crops?
Why not try it from another approach to see if theres an answer. Such as why do birds eat your food?
Answer: Because theres nothing else around to eat most likely.
Try planting some https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_food_plants ,and the birds will have something else to eat. You'l always lose some to birds, but not as much if theres a competitive supermarket nearby.
As veggiechicken says birds can cure insect/slug problems for you. So monitor what types of birds visit, find out what else they eat,and plant that. A healthy garden is a complex food chain not just fruit trees.

[Small pumpkin]

What's wrong with sharing.