Whats left of my pea's after the Pigeon's & Jay's had their way
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n31/valleydaz/DSC01048.jpg)
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n31/valleydaz/DSC01047.jpg)
The horror!
And there is almost nothing you can do about that except netting the whole row. But I don't like the sight of that.
So I try with strings with strips of tin foil attached, with cd's on strings suspended from poles, and still my whole crop was eaten.
Do you have something left?
I might get a few meals out of whats left
Netting, netting and more netting. That's our motto. Or get a gun.
Have learnt the netting lesson the hard way this year.
You won't be able to see my plot next year!
Going to net mine thismorning!! Not going to leave them after seeing that, tuinman :o (I was, as my neighbour's seem ok).
It looks stupid and is a nuisance, but netting and more netting is the only way to go. That way we have a brassica/pea left to eat...
You must be really PEAved off Tuinman. ;D ;D ;D
The Sweet corn, peppers and courgettes look good though... I've had a row of Mangetout almost mangetouted by the birds...
>:(
grrrrr .. bloody pigeons. They keep pecking at mine too - I asked for advice and was tempted by someones suggestion to get a sparrowhawk or similar ;D
Grow tall peas and use peasticks the old-fashioned way. Get a bigger yield and the flying rats can't reach the bottom peas and they are too fat to balance on the thin twigs to get at the top ones.
tuinman,
Tel me about it!
I have resolved the problem with 'skyrats & peas'.
Push bamboo sticks in every 6' / 9" away from the rows each side, tie 100% black polyester cotton(Guttermann) at 3"/6" heights. They won't get your peas or any other plants!
My plants got dessimated by sparrows & other little birds [bird identification not my strong point :)]. Caught them at it several times - they took all the tops off the plants & stopped them growing any more.
This is only our 2nd full year working our plot & the one
thing that ive learnt above everything else is what Asbean
says protect everything with netting.
Bil......
the funny thing is they never go for my neighbours peas and he doesn't use any netting.
How annoying to lose your peas to the birds. I don't want to tempt fate but I've been lucky so far without netting, and it is my first year of success with peas. One thing I have noticed is that the pigeons didn't go anywhere near my blue pea variety whereas they did go for the seedlings of 'Table top' (green), don't know if it will be the same with the peas themselves.
Your sweetcorn is looking great too, I don't know what mine is doing this year, all the plants have started to flower but they are still fairly short!