Fruiting Mulberry Bush (Morus nigra) Bird Protection

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?NMRMM 22 June 2012 Fruiting Mulberry Bush (Morus nigra) Bird Protection
My fruiting mulberry bush is heavily laden with prime fruit this year. Seldom do I get much fruit, since the robins collect most and destroy the remaining berries by defecating with their white faeces, almost like white wash.The berries are best collected by shaking the tree and collecting the berries in trays on the ground. It rained last night and the berries are just beginning to ripen, so were very clean today, so I decided to build an enclosure to protect from the robins. The enclosure has to be all around, since I have found robins eating under the tree canopy which is open.

Construction was using 8 foot rebar 1/2 inch diameter for support. The fibre glass roll is 8 feet wide and 50 feet long.The fibre glass screening was fastened using plastic ties. The top was bunched and tied to completely enclose the tree.This screening is strong, and doesn’t snag when working with it, not like the cheap netting being sold as bird protection, also it does no damage to the birds, since they cannot become entangled.The collecting trays are covers off plastic storage boxes and pails.

[boboff]

Nice Job.

It's a surprise to me how similar your yard looks to one in the UK in August.

[Thomzo]

I'm going to have to do something similar for the gooseberries soon as they're beginning to ripen and the birds got the lot last year. Just wish it'd stop raining so I could get outside.

Zoe