Long-time forum members may remember reading about the bird netting enclosure I started back in 2010. It proved to be a big disappointment--unfortunately, the openings in the netting were slightly too large, and the smallest birds continued to squeeze through and ruin most of my fruit year after year.

Recently however, the supplier I had purchased the netting from (amigoni.com/bird netting.htm) added some new products, and I rebuilt the cage last month with a smaller-sized mesh (labeled "bird netting smaller mesh" on the website). The result? A truly bird-free zone--finally.
 
 

The cage is roughly 120 feet by 28 feet, 12.5 feet high along the center ridge and 8.5 feet at the edges. A low perimeter fence of chicken wire draped with black plastic keeps large animals (coyotes & javelinas) from breaking in; it also prevents the abundant lizards and snakes in my neighborhood from climbing up to get their heads stuck in the netting. A four-wire "Fidoshock" electric fence discourages big critters from testing the mesh. So far, everything is working great. I can even enjoy having birds in the yard again--especially as I watch them hop around on top of the cage, trying to figure out how to get in!

Budget has been a major issue from the start, so while I think the netting supplier's "knitted multi-row" product probably would have been a better choice (wider rolls, making it unnecessary to seam several pieces together; better UV stability), I couldn't justify the higher cost for what I still consider something of an experiment. The lightweight netting I bought will likely not last many seasons, so I'll enjoy it while I can (one roll is enough to cover the cage twice).

The cage protects a couple dozen fig trees of various sizes ranging from tiny to very productive four-year-olds, as well as a persimmon, apple, 2 plums, 2 peaches, and 2 apricots. The earliest of the main crop figs to ripen are from the Georgia White Hybrid, which has become one of my favorites. We are really thrilled to finally be getting perfect, unpecked fruit!
 
 
 

Nice job, Ken!

Ken,
I'd love to see and hear more. Nice.

Nice job on that It looks great

Looks fabulous!  Great job!

Hey Ken, thanks for sharing this- the cage looks great. I also wanted to thank you for your other topics related to this- after reading them and seeing what you were working on I was inspired to build a scaled down version to protect my figs out of PVC and netting.

Wow, that's impressive! How does it hold up to weather (wind, mostly)?

Looks great but after the weather in NW Florida last night if it had been in my yard it would now be 2 counties away.

WOW!
Very nice

I'm very impressed.

Any issues with wind, or does is seem to flow right through?

That is excellent Ken.  Let us know how it holds up.  By the way, my Georgia White Hybrid is healthy and growing.  I'm hoping to taste fruit from it this year.  The photo of the cut fig looks very nice.

Outstanding!

Very Impressive!

That's a lot of work.  It looks great and I hope it out lasts your expectations!

That would make a nice aviary. Seriously though, that is a very nice set up. Your climate allows that kind of structure, I guess you don't get much snow. I like that you cared enough to keep the snakes and lizards safe from the netting, as I have had snakes in my bird netting, and it is difficult to save them when the weave themselves in. Protecting from larger animals was a good move also. You will be enjoying the fruits of your labor from now on it seems.

Mike in Hanover, VA

If that holds up to the wind, rain and hail, can I get you to come help be do the same in the future?  :)

Seriously, nice job!  I wonder how hard it would be to make that somewhat 'portable' so it could be taken down every winter.

Thanks, All, for your comments.

Regarding weather issues, I had a number of problems with the previous enclosure: To save money, I used 1/2" EMT conduit for all the support poles, and the corner poles and a couple of others at the ends of the structure got bent during our monsoon winds. I straightened them out again and sleeved heavier conduit over them, and haven't had any more bending. However, the new netting has smaller openings and therefore will likely create more wind resistance, so time will tell whether the poles will be able to handle the load.

On the first version I used cheap tie wire for the rigging that supports the netting. In a fairly short time, though, the wind began to make the wire fatigue and break at the connections, and then the netting would tear. The wire also rusted, which made it abrasive and caused it to wear through the netting in some places. In the improved version I used 1/16" galvanized aircraft cable instead, sleeved inside 1/8" irrigation tubing. The tops of the support poles are kept from touching the netting by shields made from 2-liter soda bottles, cut in half. The tubing and half-bottles insure that the netting only comes in contact with smooth plastic (except in a few spots along the edges) which should make it last longer.

We rarely get snow in Tucson but it does happen, and during one winter storm there was enough buildup to tear the netting. I can't engineer it to carry a snow load, so in the latest version I'm planning to remove the netting after harvesting the last persimmons (around Christmas), and reinstall it again in April before the first apricots ripen. The vertical netting at both ends of the cage is permanently installed, but the rest is a simple rectangle held in place with clothespins and wire hooks for relatively easy (I hope) removal.

The other main climate issue is sunshine. UV eats most plastic up pretty fast in Tucson. The previous netting was pretty stable, and still in relatively good shape after four years. The new stuff doesn't seem that durable to me, but we'll see. I used Dacron multi-stranded fishing line to connect the seams; it should last much longer than the netting itself.

Unfortunately, it's inevitable that this sort of light-weight enclosure will require periodic maintenance and repair. I've worked out some of the bugs but I'm sure others will appear. I just hope there won't be any problems so serious that I have to give it up, because in my area, a physical barrier is the ONLY way to keep birds from spoiling most of every crop.

I built a small bird cage from pvc pipe, I will drape netting over it as figs ripen next month.

@TusconKen, that's an amazing work you have done...how feasible is that material, may I ask how much it cost?
...Also, are you planing to remove the netting after the fruit harvest or are the nets made to last very long time...?

Aaron, I am planning to take it down after the Fuyu Persimmons are harvested, around Christmas. It will go back up around late April, in time to protect the early peaches. The netting is comparatively inexpensive (a little over 2 cents a square foot), but you have to buy it in large quantities. The roll I bought was 13' wide by 820' long (enough to do my cage twice), for about $250. The manufacturer claims (http://www.amigoni.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=101&Category_Code=BNSM) it's UV stable for 3-4 years, but I'm skeptical about it lasting that long. We'll see. I think the 1/2" x 1/2" black plastic netting sold by Home Depot is better, but I couldn't find large enough rolls (seaming it together is laborious) or a wholesale price.

Rafaelissimmo's small PVC cage is a great solution if you have just a few trees. If you don't need to cover a lot of them, then the Home Depot route may be your most cost-effective option. Any framework that allows easy access for picking, and holds the netting away from the fruit/leaves (keeping it fairly flat so the birds don't get all tangled up) should work better than simply draping it directly over the trees.

We had our first monsoon storm yesterday; high winds and heavy rain, but no damage to the cage. I picked a nice bowl of figs this morning without any bird droppings or holes pecked in them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will continue working well and that I'll be able to get several seasons out of the cage.

thanks for the info Ken, laborious work for sure...but nevertheless ideal.
Did you prepare the entire thing like a jacket to throw over the supportive cage or did you thread the supporting wire over the net...how did you do it to hold like it is, looks really great.?

The poles/support cable rigging goes up before the netting is installed. Next comes the two end walls, which are separate rectangles of netting, more or less permanently "sewed" to the cables. The top and sides consist of one big rectangle pulled up and over the support cables (like draping a tablecloth over a table), fastened with clothespins along the four vertical corner cables and along the top, horizontal cable at both ends. Along the bottom edges of the two long side walls, I used wire hooks to attach it to the low chicken wire fence, which it overlaps by about 6 inches.

If you're interested, at some point I can take close-ups here and there to show some of the details, such as the doorway, cable connections, etc. Although my cage is fairly large, it would be simple to build something just big enough to cover only a tree or two, or a few more. If you had a size in mind (L x W x H) I'd be happy to tell you how I would approach it.

Ken, thanks for the update. Inspired by seeing your first one when we visited a couple of years ago, I built mine. It's very similar and is 55 feet by 20 feet. It has been a blessing. Although I had lousy seasons two years in a row, we are off to a great start this year. No rain and no bugs. There is nothing like being able to let a fig ripen to just the right stage you want without having to worry about a bird or critter snatching it from you the day or night before you want to pick it. I want to sincerely thank you for the idea. Mine is going through it second season without a hitch. I'd love to drive over and check yours out in person but we have no plans to drive that way in the near future. Good luck with your season.
"gene"

Thanks Gene, I'm glad to hear the cage is working out for you. I'd love to see your set-up as well--it sounds like you have a good size. Maybe you can post pictures if you're so inclined. Please let me know if you're ever out our way again!

Thanks Ken for sharing the How To... it makes sense now, I'll know how to make my own some day...