Fruit is being damaged by birds

While I was away the birds have been feasting on the fruits in the orchard. They have damaged some of the apples and most of the remaining cherries.

Not all the apples have been damaged, just some and its fine with me, at least the fruit was and is being eaten, not wasted.

I have removed more of the brown fencing that was around the trees, I still have more that 25 trees to go. Each tree takes about 20 minutes to remove the fencing and then clear the weeds so its time consuming. This weekend I was working alone, but made good progress.

The rabbits have tried to nibble around some of the trees that have already been cleared. I have to replace the fencing with a smaller type of protection. I have seen various methods in orchards around, and will be using one similar to ones used at Ryton gardens.

I didn’t check the bees this week; they seem fine and will have to do a more vigorous check next week. It will be the end of the honey season in about 6 weeks and I will start ordering in the varroa treatments.