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bird netting enclosure

Very very nice. Your hard work is paying off.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus

very cool! My master plan was just to overwhelm the little buggers with numbers of things to eat. lol

In the interest of full disclosure, I've learned that the netting isn't quite as effective as I'd hoped.


Early on, when the cage was in the planning stage, I conducted a test with a piece of the netting and a verdin (a tiny bird with a gigantic appetite). I put him in a big tin can, rubber-banded the mesh over the top and laid the can on its side. The verdin squeezed through in nothing flat. So, I knew these cute little stinkers would be able to get through, but hoped the netting would at least be a deterrent. Unfortunately, as the peaches and the second apricot tree peaked, the verdins became highly motivated and are now quite skilled at popping in and out through the netting, wherever and whenever they feel like it. I was just out looking things over and saw three of them zip right through the mesh in about five minutes.

It's still 100% effective on all the other birds, so once the figs get decent-sized I may be able to keep most of the fruit. But, it's disappointing, and of course, the birds go for the nicest, ripest fruit. Anybody else who uses this netting will likely be okay if their local birds aren't that small, but the maximum opening size to stop verdins is 1/2 by 1/2, and this looks to be about 5/8 x 5/8. So, I'll be trying to come up with a new way to stop them.

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Maybe a cat or two? Reflective tape works for a while at least on the birds around here.

Yes, the cat idea is worth thinking about, but I'm afraid the birds wouldn't get in range very often--most of the fruit is out on skinny branches that wouldn't support a cat. I even had a fleeting thought about getting a falconer's permit so I could put a kestrel on guard duty, but I'd probably need a whole team of them. The verdins are pretty bold--I don't think they'd be fooled more than a few minutes by reflective tape or other scare-type measures.


On the bright side, I emailed the netting supplier to say that if he ever starts carrying 1/2x1/2 in large quantities to let me know, and he wrote back and said he just found a supplier and will be sending me details. Probably not in the budget for this year, but maybe next. In the meantime, if anyone is being bothered by finch-sized (or larger) birds and wants a screaming deal on a single, huge, already-spliced sheet of netting, 42 feet x 135 feet with 3/4x3/4 openings (they're a little bigger than I was guessing in my previous post), just let me know!

How about playing their alarm call? It is the third call on this recording here http://www.mirror-pole.com/collpage/verdin/verdin.mp3. Good luck, they do look like tough little birds.

Interesting--that's just how they sound when I go inside the cage, but they don't seem very alarmed--often they just flit to the other side of the tree. Perhaps that call also means, "Here comes our waiter--maybe he's bringing dessert!"


Several forum members have said that mesh is the only way to protect fruit from birds, and I'm convinced they're right. Birds seem to get used to deterrents very quickly, and then ignore them. In this case, I was the victim of my own wishful thinking--I figured that the slightly larger mesh openings would still exclude all, or at least, most, of the verdins, and that a few tiny birds couldn't do that much damage. Ha! I didn't realize there would be so many--the netting actually makes it better for them because they don't have to compete with the big birds, and they seem to be flocking from all over. Even if I was inclined to shoot them, which I'm not, there are simply too many for it to be effective.

So, at some point I'll have to bite the bullet (or the B.B.) and buy the smaller-sized netting. My wife at least supports the idea--after tasting all those peaches along with the first batch of apricots (before the little stinkers figured out how to get in), I think she would do whatever it takes to keep harvesting tree-ripened fruit. In the meantime, I'll be out there with clothespins and newspaper, covering the last of the apricots and the first of the plums--maybe losing a few battles but still confident about eventually winning the war.

Ken, do you have enough leftover 3/4 x 3/4 netting to put another layer on top of the original?  Maybe the holes would not line up and so would be smaller.

Thanks Tim--it's a good thought. However, I calculated just the amount I would need and bought only that much--nothing was left over, other than a narrow "safety margin" around the edges to make sure I didn't run short. Fortunately I took care not to trim it or make cuts anywhere, so it's still a nice clean rectangle, and I expect I'll be able to find someone who can use it through ebay or craigslist, once I've replaced it with 1/2x1/2. Hopefully the price of the new material will be in the same ballpark as what I originally bought, so it won't break the budget!

Too bad you can't just shrink it in the dryer! A kestrel is not a bad idea, maybe call up local wildlife rescues and tell them you have an enclosure for a bird that cannot go back to the wild. Win-win right? You would only need a wildlife holding permit for that.

Ken,

I had just placed an order for 600'x14' of that netting to cover my garden and greenhouse area after seen your posts. Hopefully I can get it changed to the smaller size since that pesky little bird is danger close according to a map I found. Thanks for letting us know about that rascal! I was only tracking mockingirds and cardinals as major bandits around here.

Ken, I love your set up.  You have a good investment.  I'm at that point where I have to cover my entire orchard.  I thought that netting was 1/2 inch or at least like the kind you get a your local hardware store.  I found the 3 birds that are attacking my trees.  Now they have started on my container trees.  I already lost several White marseilles figs but haven't given up.  I guess if my trees were large and were full of fruit I wouldn't mind so much but they aren't. 

The area I plan on covering is a backwards "F" shape which is about 80 feet long and 40 feet wide.  First I have to start and finish my irrigation system, I'm starting that on Thursday.  Then comes the bird netting.  Fox Sparrows are the biggest problem in my area.  I think netting is the only solution to keeping them out.  thanks for posting and good luck!

UPDATE

Sad to say, but unless the netting supplier comes through on his promise to start carrying the 1/2x1/2 mesh in 2012, the fruit cage experiment will all be for naught. The verdins may be tiny but their appetites are gigantic, and they've come to absolutely love the cage since they can zip right through the mesh with ease and don't have to compete with any larger birds, which can't get in. In effect, all I've done is create a verdins-only, fresh-fruit buffet. I took these bird-damage shots a few minutes ago; now the only safe figs are the ones wearing armor.

At any rate, I've been able to determine that the basic concept is sound, so if I can find the smaller mesh in bulk for a low enough price, I'm confident it will work like a charm. Until then, I'm saving plastic berry boxes.

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Ken, See Birdnet

See you Saturday?

Thanks Jon; good info, but unless I can find comparable prices to what I purchased previously, it will be outside of my budget.


Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it up to Phoenix on Saturday after all. I'm helping with a family friend's eagle scout project in the morning and serving food at a church barbecue in the afternoon. There's never enough time to do it all! Good luck with your talk--I expect it will be worth more than all the pomegranate presentations put together!

Ken,

Maybe you can stagger two layers of the larger-opening net to make one layer that has holes half the size.

Maybe--although I think it would be close to impossible to keep both layers offset to just the right amount. For now, I'll wait for the 1/2x1/2 to be available in bulk at a wholesale price. I checked with the distributor yesterday, and he said he's still planning to carry it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ken,


In the meanwhile you can get some 1/2" bird netting and throw it over the individual trees to save whats left of your crop for this year.  Home Depot and Lowes sell it.

Joe

Thanks Joe, good idea.

Hey Ken,

pretty neat set up. i was thinking about your problem with the birds and other pest. my father in law use to live in fort pierce florida and his neighbor had a pool which had a screen house covering the pool. the fella said if you own a pool in florida it was a must. so my thought is maybe looking into screening. some of that stuff last a long time and that would stop birds and bugs. wouldn't hurt to look into, i'm sure they make it in wide and long rolls. hope this helps, might be something i might try to do in the future.

 

                                                       luke

Another good idea--thanks Luke. window screen would definitely work to keep the birds and other critters out, but would add a lot of weight and wind resistance, which would ultimately require a redo of the structure as well. I won't rule it out, but definitely want to eliminate the least expensive, easiest, lowest visual-impact options first. One way or the other, though, I'm committed to finding a workable, convenient solution for protecting a sizeable bunch of trees.

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