Cross post from Rural life - what do you use to keep

[hedgehog]

birds away from your berry patch? (Of course, in my case, the birds are my free range chickens!)

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Netting. Buy it at any farm supply or plant nursery.

[libodem]

2. I am not sure if this is a real cure

But 'my friend', and I paint rocks for fun. She saw a pintrest picture where the gardener painted rocks that looked like strawberries and set them out under the plants, before the berries arrive. The plot thickness....apparently the birds become frustrated after trying to peck the rocks and leave the real berries alone.


Other than the decoy berries I suggest netting of some kind. Oh and chicken wire fences.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. Nuttin.

I seem to have far more problems with slugs in my strawberries than birds. But since I only use them to make jam, I just cut out the munched on parts, although I still end up losing something like 1/3 to 1/4 of the harvest to the #$%%^& slugs. And the birds don't seem to bother the raspberries at all.

If it's chickens, and you're letting them range free, then I'd go with the other poster who suggested you fence in the berries.

[TuxedoKat]

4. I read that you can use tulle

that you buy at a fabric store. It's cheap and safer for birds which may get caught in the netting and die.

[shraby]

5. I tried netting on the garden one year and that was the last time I

ever used it. It even came of early. I had a bird get badly tangled in it, had to cut it loose. The I put the damm net in the trash. I felt terrible!

[TuxedoKat]

6. I think I read somewhere

that tulle is safer -- the mesh is so small that a bird wouldn't get caught in it. I would feel terrible if a bird was harmed too. I didn't have any tulle so I just draped a long white scarf over some berries while they were ripening but the birds still got to the berries. Next year I will try tulle though.