Help Major Bird Problems

[grassbusterdesigns]

Hey guys I have a quick question, I'm new to gardening and we are in the process of building raised beds all along the side of our house. We currently have four pepper plants and four jalapeno plants that are in five gallon pots. We plan to finish the raised beds before spring planting season comes back around.

I would like to hear all the ideas you guys have for detouring birds from eating off of my plants. Along the side of sunniest side of our house we have about a foot overlap of roof, but not enough to block the needed sunlight of the plants. The bed on this side of the house is going to be approximately 30 feet long along the side of the house. I was thinking about hanging a net down from the overlapping roof above and putting stakes at the bottom to keep the birds out. However, I can't seem to find a net that's large enough 30'x15-20' down that is within our budget. I would be interested in hearing all the ideas you guys have to keep birds out. Our Jalapeno plants had about 15 large Jalapeno's on each plant and that number is down to about half now thanks to the birds. When we finish the bed we plan to have many more plants and I'm tired of the birds feasting all of our veggies away.

It would be greatly appreciated if someone could give me some ideas to keep these creatures away from the veggies!

[grassbusterdesigns]

I found this netting for only $20. bucks. 14x45'.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bird-X-14-ft ... /202871743

Would it be wise to hang this from the overlapping roof and steak it down to the ground? Then when I need access to the garden I can just unsteak it from the bottom?

I was thinking if the 14' wasn't tall enough to reach from the ground to the roof possibly purchasing a tad more netting and using zip ties to tie two nets together than staking at the bottom with some kind of u-shaped stakes?

[brinboise]

I have had bird 'problems' for years, mostly quail. The only way I could keep these beasts from eating every seedling and small plant was taking hardware cloth-(1/4 & 1/2" square-see lowe's or Home depot) and forming little covers over the plants. Once the plants are established I take bird netting and cover the plants. I seldom have problems with peppers/tomatoes/onions/melons/cole or bean crops from the birds once they are about a foot tall, but have to keep any leafy vegetables covered until harvest. I have raised beds about 4' wide and the hardware cloth is easy to make the covers about 40" long x 24" wide by 6" tall. By using 1/2" plastic pipe (the type in rolls) I form the frame work for the bird netting and zip tie it on. Bird netting is kind of a pain to use but it is fairly durable as I reuse it for couple of years.

[digitS']

This is the way I have kept sparrows out of seedbeds for things like lettuce.

I "borrowed" my daughter's cat. See, she had outgrown it anyway.

No, this wasn't a real cat - it was a toy cat, stuffed with some kind of fiber. A lovely little thing, life-size and very cat-like. I would move it often! It would be peering out from under the rhubarb leaves, nearly hidden in the shade at the corner of the fence, mostly under a piece of cardboard leaning against the greenhouse. That cat really got around! The birds had no idea where it would be morning or afternoon, day to day! It didn't seem to matter that the cat was a stuffed toy. The sparrows stayed out of that small garden.

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

Never heard of birds eating peppers! I don't see the point of doing the huge net from the roof. If you are gardening in raised beds, it is very easy to protect each bed individually. Just put in hoops and cover the hoops with netting, row cover, plastic for protection from cold, etc. For plants as small as peppers, the wire frames political yard signs come on work great as hoops.

[evtubbergh]

Birds LOVE chillis and peppers in general. I actually feed chillis to the wild birds. They seem to leave my plants alone, well as far as I can tell. I actually planted big red chills this year to harvest just for the birds. Lol

[weterman]

Try putting a stick up there, and nail a cloth to it. The wind will blow it around, birds be scared of it. (hopefully)

[imafan26]

Bird netting or cages will work. People have also strung cassette tape in the garden and hung out pie pans, the birds do not like the sound of the tape in the wind and the pie pans reflect light. Owls (the plastic ones) don't work unless you move them every day, even then the birds get used to it.

I choose peppers that are large and pendulous (jalapeno, anaheim, cayenne) or small and on small plants (Thai hot). They are harder for the birds to get to and it helps if the peppers are picked in the green stage. In the red stage the birds can see the pepper better and they are softer so the birds make a bigger effort to get them. Tabasco and chilitepins (bird) peppers on the other hand have to be caged and netted. the upright peppers are a perfect size for the birds to pick off and swallow. It does not matter to the birds if they are green or red. Without netting all I have on the tabasco peppers are caps.

However, birds are picky, they will leave the peppers alone if there are tomatoes (especially big ones) or sweet papaya around.

I did find a deterrent of sorts. Birds are territorial so I put out a bird feeder. It attracts hordes of society finches but they will keep the bulbuls away. Not so much the mejiro, that bird will attack cats.

[imafan26]

Bird netting or cages will work. People have also strung cassette tape in the garden and hung out pie pans, the birds do not like the sound of the tape in the wind and the pie pans reflect light. Owls (the plastic ones) don't work unless you move them every day, even then the birds get used to it.

I choose peppers that are large and pendulous (jalapeno, anaheim, cayenne) or small and on small plants (Thai hot). They are harder for the birds to get to and it helps if the peppers are picked in the green stage. In the red stage the birds can see the pepper better and they are softer so the birds make a bigger effort to get them. Tabasco and chilitepins (bird) peppers on the other hand have to be caged and netted. the upright peppers are a perfect size for the birds to pick off and swallow. It does not matter to the birds if they are green or red. Without netting all I have on the tabasco peppers are caps.

However, birds are picky, they will leave the peppers alone if there are tomatoes (especially big ones) or sweet papaya around.

I did find a deterrent of sorts. Birds are territorial so I put out a bird feeder. It attracts hordes of society finches but they will keep the bulbuls away. Not so much the mejiro, that bird will attack cats.

Cats in the garden do deter some birds, but only if the cat is a good hunter. Unfortunately mine are only good at begging for food.