Grow Your Own Magazine

Can anyone please tell me how to stop pesky pigeons eating
my calabrese on my allotment. I have tride netting them but it has no worked.

you will need

air rifle
pie dish
short crust pastry
onion
mushroom
gravy

shoot the pigeons, remove breat meat, bake in pie, eat

You see ste2 there is an upside to everything!!!
They would have a problem getting through a bunnywire type of netting. You would need to make a type of frame,even if it is wrapped round some poles at each corner and then a piece over the top.Depends on the area really. Might sound expensive to start with, but it would last you many years, and not rip .Once pigeons find some tasty nosh ,they'll tell all their mates and ruin the entire crop. Good luck!

I'm afraid we shoot all ours

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www.poultrychat.com

I save all those awful CDs from the sunday news papers and suspend them on lines between canes, seems the light reflecting off them helps, silver foil is good too.

I'll go with Dragonz advice - I have two nesting in my large holly tree which overlooks my veggies and the rifle is coming out this week - they have already had a small taster of three cabbages so they have only themselves to blame.
And anyway, they taste lovely !

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday 17th September

Wood Pigeons are a major problem in our allotment but I have found netting effective provided there is enough space between the plant and the netting. What the beggars can do is sit on top of the netting which bows it down and then peck away at the leaves or they can lean into the sides and do the same. Of course pea netting is no good as the holes are too big and they can poke their necks through. The textbook says that they only eat brassicas in winter and early Spring when there is less food about but, unfortunately, ours haven't read the text book and I have to keep the netting on all the year round.
A good idea is to by a few hoops of semi-rigid plastic tubing from, the DIY store(like they use for electric cables) and join two of them up and stick them in the ground and create a taunt "polytunnel" like thing with netting instead of plastic (you can replace the netting with plastic in winter if you want and create a polytunnel!). This prevents the birds from getting at the plants.
We get them nesting in our garden at home and I go round knocking the nests out as they build them. Eventually they give up. Alternatively you can by one of those super dooper long range water pistols and give them a good soaking. It discourages them and you can revert to being a 9 year old again!
However it doesn't stop them landing on out TV aerial . The weight of them taking off eventually pulled our aerial down and took a chunk of the chimney stack out with it!

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George the Pigman

I would take care eating pigeons, if your in a rural area then it would be ok but town pigeons carry more diseases than the common rat..

however if you develop a taste for them pray you get squirrels they are even tastier...

Wouldn't dream of eating the local squirrel population as we only have reds up here - these american imports stop at about Perth I think, and long may this continue as after the greys move in, the reds seem to die back and disappear at a rate of knots

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday 17th September

It is a quicky way to turn vegetables to first class proteins, at list you know what they have been eating. ( if it moves you eat it if not you still eat it ) Don Vincenzo

Don't have a pigeon problem at the moment as no kitchen garden, but intend to start one at the back end. If pigeons are a problem the only answer is shoot them and eat them

thanks ill try them and let you now.

I covered my dwarf bean with an arch of chicken wire gathered at both ends. That kept em off.

beware that you may need to have a license to shoot the pigeons and it is not allowed to disturb birds at the nest either..wildlife and countryside act..

quote from the UK Airgun law section ;

It is commonly thought that all birds considered as vermin can be shot at any time and by anyone. This is not strictly true. All birds and animals are protected by law and only "authorised" persons who have proper permission can lawfully do so..


so be careful about this- if bunny huggers see you then you could be in trouble..

Anyway if you net properly there should be no problem.. and should we not share a section of our food with wildlife? Or do you want to grow vegetables in a piece of ground barren of other life?

Why not grow a few more than you need, protect the strongest plants well and let the other plants grow or not...? The wood pigeons on my plot help keep the slug numbers down- they love the things- and so what if they eat a few peas or cabbages..

You can use red and yellow tape, they don't like it, bottles on top of canes or an old Bob Flowerdew trick, get a piece of fake fur, cat shaped and lie it down at the bottom of your plants, just in view, as if stalking and move every now and then.

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Best wishes
Andrewo
Harbinger of Rhubarb tales