Covering strawberries and blueberry bushes

[Stubbornhillfarm]

I have just purchased some bird netting to go over my strawberries and bluberry bushes. Does anyone have opinions as to how to most successfully do this? I have chickens to keep out in addition to wild birds. Would you suggest just draping over and securing to the ground or building some sort of frame?

Thanks so much!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd personally build a frame, especially for the strawberries. If you just lay it over them, the chickens and probably birds will be able to reach the berries through the netting.

Blueberries probably not so much as farv as reaching through, but I'd be a bit concerned with the netting getting hung up on the blueberry branches and you knocking not-yet-ripe blueberries off as you try to remove the netting so you can get in there. I find that stuff aggravating to work around. It wants to snag on everything.

I've tried draping that netting over blackberries and tomatoes. In both cases, that was a mistake. They both grew through the netting, locking it on, so it was a pain working around it.

 

[vfem]

I put up a short metal fence around the strawberries to keep the ducks and chickens out. Mine are dumb honestly, and they will just get tangled in bird netting without a second thought. All that can think is "BERRY! BERRY!".

I need to get some netting for the raspberries though... my neighbor has it on his blueberries and swears by it for the cane berries!

Good luck!

 

[patandchickens]

Hoops (best) or a-frame type deal (doesn't work well with wide bushes, works better with raspberries grown along wires etc), made of whatever materials are handy, with netting thrown over them.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Thanks all for your suggestions and input. I made some hoops from beech saplings and draped the netting over these for the blueberry bushes. For the strawberries, I made a frame of sorts. Most of my hens walked right over to the berries especially because I mulched with hay. But once they got close enough to see the netting, they just moved on. I only have 1 leghorn that tried still to get the hay out, but after getting her beak in the netting twice she gave up. Hopefully this will be a big enough detterent for them. Seems to be working so far!