KILL 'EM - kill them all

[Mr_Yan]

I had several pounds of concord grapes nearly ripe on my vine a few days ago. Today I looked at the vines and there wasn't a single purple grape to be seen.

The birds picked my grape vine clean.

I had been planning on making drawstring bags to put over the grape bunches but didn't have time. Now it's too late.

A 12 gauge is way too large for these things - I think it was mostly sparrows. Those gluttonous pigs will empty a millet filled bird feeder in three hours around here.

 

[Mike]

Between the birds, squirrels and dogs, I got 2-3 strawberries last year.

 

[w_r_ranch]

A 12 gauge is way too large for these things.

Use a 20 gauge with #8 shot. All joking aside, I know how you feel... Birds & squirrels put a dent in my fig harvest every year.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I had crows stealing lots of cherries in Idaho, so i shot one, and hung him in the tree, and the flock flew around screaming and making a racket for a few hours and came back a couple or three times for smaller rallies, but finally flew away, and never returned, even in the following years i was there.

I just use bird netting here, but my trees are small, and i intend to keep them that way so i can continue draping them.

Saw something new today. Linda put out a humming bird feeder and there was a young Oriole drinking from one of the cups today.
Ernie

 

[Mr_Yan]

A few years ago, while I was sitting in a hospital room while my wife was in labor, my brother texted me a pic of a sparrow on the ground. One of the reasons this stuck with me is this sparrow was pegged to the ground by a carbon arrow buried to the fletchings. He nailed that grounded bird from about 40 feet across the back yard.

I need to get my bow re-sized to my draw length and looked over then I'll start shooting.

Anyway I have the sewing machine set up up stairs and will take some time to make some drawstring bags.

This is the third year in a row where my vines have set fruit but the birds got all of it before me. Really I have no right to complain after three years of doing the same thing but expecting a different result.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Yan,
Last year and the year before, i had both a bee and a bird problem eating or sucking out the grapes, so i bought a bolt of cheesecloth last eyar, and a boxs of the folding spring file clips for this year. But we had only a fraction of the birds and bees because of the very dry winter, and many times as many grapes, so i did not need to use the protection.

But maybe getting the right size of bags can be a problem, as the bunches vary so much on my vines, so instead of making the bags, last year we just draped swaths of the cheese cloth around the bunches and fastened with clothespins. The swathing worked well as that took care of the fitting problem but the clothespins did not hold well enough.

If i have to do it next year, i will cut a slash in one end of the square or rectangle clothe to slide over the vine at the top of the bunch, making it easier and neater to wrap the bunch.

Ernie