Sprout Tops

[delboy]

If I cut the sprout tops off to eat as greens now, will that mean the sprouts themselves will be affected?

The usual statements in all the books is to eat them after the sprouts, but the pigeons and their friends as well as caterpillars shred them...

[delboy]

[realfood]

Cover them with netting to keep the birds away. Keep the tops for the Winter, as there is so much else to eat right now.

[earlypea]

I read in a book that you can cut the tops off if you want to hurry up the development of the sprouts in the autumn and then they do it more evenly if it's an open pollinated variety.  Never tried it.