Scare bird

[flandersander]

I have this massive saskatoon berry bush and want to keep the birds off of it. The berries are there and there are lots, thats why I don't want to feed the birds with them this year. What can I do, without making a big mesh cage? I was thinking of putting a few pebles between 2 pieplates to make some noise when they land. Thoughts?

[crashdive123]

Try high density polyethelene bird netting. There are lots of places to get it, the link is just to show you what it is. I have never used this vendor. http://www.hooverfence.com/garden-su...rd-netting.htm

[Rick]

I had cherry trees for a while and the netting was the ONLY thing that worked long term. The pie pans will work for a few days but birds are pretty crafty. They figure stuff out pretty quick. Then there will be all this racket of them banging on the pie pans!

[flandersander]

Well they don't like to hang out there because my son has a fort and a bb gun right by there, they only come in very seldome, but when they do come in, thats what they do, eat a few berries until my son can get a shot off. then they are gon for the day. but I just want some extra insurance so to speak, what should I do?

[crashdive123]

If you didn't like post #2, I don't know what to tell you. It's what I use to keep birds out of some of my customers friut trees. It works well and doesn't cost too much.

[flandersander]

its not that I didn't like it, and I apreciate the advice, but bird netting isn't really an option right now. Its a long story.

[skunkkiller]

shootting song birds is illegal is n't it ?

[crashdive123]

Unless you're going to use them for food, I wouldn't encourage your kid to shoot the birds. After all, the birds don't know it's your saskatoon berry bush....they think it's theirs.

[flandersander]

Not song birds skunkiller black birds. Sometimes robins show up but he knows not to shoot at them. And crash, I apreciate your advice but well, his bb gun is crap. he could shoot himself in the leg and it wouldn't draw blood. I realize that doesn't make it right but the birds don't die. it just makes them go away. That still doesn't make it right, but its my kid, and he wants to hunt, so what the hay, go shoot blackbirds I say, ok now back on a less contraversial topic, what should I do? Does some type of rattle sound good? (pun intended)

[Rick]

Some where on it'sourblackbirdworld.net a bunch of black birds are discussing how to rid their saskatoon berry bush of a kid with a bb gun.

[wareagle69]

run around the bush flapping your arms screaming caw caw caw

[flandersander]

yeah, but seriously, what should I try?

[wareagle69]

i was serious, but if you don't like my sage advice then try picking the berries now and drying them or parboiling then freezing until you need them

[flandersander]

Well I just kinda want to make pankakes a whole bunch of times. But maybe I will run around flapping my arms... What is parboiling?

[wareagle69]

ah par boiling is getting the water to a boil then add the berries for a minute then remove berries from water and cool off, ya just can't leave the berries on the tree dude nature will win every time do as i suggested if you wish let me know how it works out for ya either way

[flandersander]

So whats the goal of parboiling? I mean, do they ripen instantly or what?

[Rick]

You can do a search on blanching. Blanching and parboiling are the same thing. I don't know anything about the berries in question so I can't comment on blanching them but I've found that blanching fruits can be a bit of a problem depending on the fruit. Too long and the skins will loosen (that's a great way to remove skins on tomatoes, by the way).

I would choose WE's suggestion of drying. If you have a dehydrator then you will have plenty of berries for pancakes. Otherwise, the net Crash suggested works.

[wareagle69]

correct rick
to help out quickly when you freeze fruit and vegetables the water in the fruit is frozen preventing decay but there are enzymes that will continue to cause loss of nurition and taste parboiling (blanching) will help prevent these losses

[Rick]

I always drop my green beans in boiling water for 3 minutes then into an ice bath to stop the cooking. Then straight into the freezer. They taste pretty darn good about January or February!

[trax]

See WarEagle, you have to be more careful than that. When you post what appears to be an innocuous little statement like "correct Rick" it just encourages him to keep posting. He's probably totally unaware that you meant "correct" as a verb and were, in fact, hoping that someone would correct Rick. But where to begin? (sighing and slowly shaking my head) And that was my "Pick on Rick" contribution for the day