How do you protect your strawberries from birds?

Marjory Wildcraft

Ever had a beautiful, ready-to-pick patch of strawberries that you waited to harvest (maybe a day or so) and then poof, they were gone?

Or have you had to fight off birds all summer long from your baby strawberries?

I want to know your favorite way to keep birds away from your berries...

Please comment below:

Lisa K

I grow my strawberries in buckets that are inside of my covered raised-beds. I have more issues with rats, raccoons and squirrels and the covered raised-beds have helped with them as well.

maimover

Planted 25 strawberry 🍓 plants last year and 50 more this year. Last years are loaded with berries and this will be my first harvest with them so I’ll be following this. The kitties are doing a bang up job with the voles (mostly) and mice. They will chase the squirrels out but that’s not their best pursuit so I’m a bit concerned about those dirty buggers with my berries ...

Linda Bittle

I've heard that you can paint small rocks to look like strawberries, and put them out long before your fruit starts to ripen. The birds supposedly give up.

judsoncarroll4

... depends.... are they tasty birds and large enough to justify plucking and cooking? Crows sure are!

LaurieLovesLearning

I only have one little plant this year. I covered it with a freezer basket. It keeps the birds off and the dog from running it over. My issue otherwise has always been little red ants! If I could beat those, I'd be happy to have more strawberry plants!

We usually support a strawberry u-pick and have for 20 years now! It is a fun outing for our family as we go see their local outdoor area attractions, including a historic swinging bridge, looking for snapping turtles & peafowl, & visiting their small town bakery, and make it a good family day.

Maybe this year, we could add agate rock hunting to our day for something different.

gardneto76

I only had a few plants this season. I found these mesh wire baskets at our local Dollar Tree, that fit over the whole plant. They work great flipped upside down over plants. I used them on my other baby plants to stop the birds from ripping them out. Prior to finding these larger baskets I used small 3 inch netted cups from my Aquaponics system turned over each berry.

jowitt.europe

I have covers for my high beds, so once strawberries are close to ripe, I will cover them for the night. And pick the red ones in the morning. I have to remove the cover during the day as it might be too hot under.

VermontCathy

Interesting. I have never had a problem with this. Despite a significant bird population, I've always gotten plenty of strawberries.

I would be more worried about blueberries. If my blueberry plants ever get large enough to produce a decent crop of fruit, I expect to have to net them. Birds love blueberries.

On the other hand, I do have concerns that birds may eat some of my newly-planted seeds in spring, when they are hungriest, leaving me with no crop. So I try to cover any seeds planted with at least a very thin layer of fine soil, just to make them invisible.

LaurieLovesLearning

@VermontCathy Sparrows steal my black currants. I rarely get more than a few berries off of my mature bush.

It is always a race to try to get haskaps before they do. Orioles in particular seem to love them.

I knew someone who was very disheartened about birds getting caught in netting, so they built a light wooden frame with hardware cloth all over it.

I think @shllnzl or @silvertipgrizz talked about using a specific type of white tuille to cover her bushes to discourage birds, letting sun in & keeping birds out. Maybe she could report how that worked for her. That may also be a solution for strawberries.