With winter being so mild, it’s quite likely this will be a hot summer. Last year, when I had to transplant my blueberry bushes, due to a neighbor spraying them with roundup a week before harvest, I chose to plant them around my chicken yard. My thinking- the girls will appreciate the shade and the blueberries will appreciate the manure the chickens tend to throw out of their yard, along with their bedding.
I protected the blueberries last year from birds and squirrels with a fence topped over with deer netting. That worked fine for last year; however, the netting became holey and ratty, and needs replacing. I decided to make the whole blueberry protection program more permanent.
I originally used ¾ diameter black plastic pipe bent in an arc to support the deer netting and that worked well enough for the light-weight, plastic mesh deer netting. This year, I sewed together long strips of small- hole chicken-wire to use instead of the deer netting. (I have to tell you, I was out there in the hot sun for a day and a half, wearing hip huggers and apparently a too short top. I burned my butt crack something fierce.)
The black pipe isn’t actually strong enough to support the weight of the chicken wire, so I’ve had to do some fancy footwork and wiring to make it stay up in the air. It doesn’t look like a professional did the job, that’s for sure. I tied the chicken wire along the length of the pipe, and then wired the pipe across the arc to itself to keep it arched. It looks hilarious- the arc has slumped over to one side creating a very odd looking shape. I’m hoping when I get the edges of the chicken wire tied in it will look better, but I’m not counting on it. As long as the birds and squirrels stay out and I don’t strangle myself on all the wires, I’ll be happy.