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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Jerry,  Blue jays are very smart, it's a pity you aren't dealing with dumber birds.  I remember a nice big Stayman winesap tree in town that was popular with the jays.  Whenever I'd pick up apples under that tree there would be many that were damaged.  The fruit was quite ripe so I sliced and dried them.  You have already seen where someone talked about birds pecking through little nylon covers.  We had trouble with redwinged blackbirds one year in town, they had found my field corn.  I used masking tape to tape the ends of the ears closed, but they pecked below the tape and tore the shucks open there.  Finally in desperation I got out a bunch of mismatched socks and pulled them down over the ears.  That did the trick.  The thing was that as long as they could actually SEE the ears, they were going to keep on working on them.  If you can protect some of your best apples from being visible, that's your best bet, because at this point they know perfectly well they are there.  The other way to deal with the birds would be bird netting, if your tree is small enough.  I have noted that any blueberries within reach will be eaten even with the bushes netted, and that if there are substantial gaps, they go inside to eat.  In fact, in the ongoing battle between me and the cardinals, I couldn't figure out where they were getting in to eat my peas.  I had nylon curtains and birdnetting over my sugar snaps, and they were still being eaten.   

    Good luck!  Remember, the real trick is to grow so many apples that the birds can't eat them all.  I am figuring that the winesap I used to pick from was 30-50 years old.  The young modern couple living in the house got tired of all that fruit on the ground, had the tree cut down.  There is nothing in their yard now except grass and a few small foundation shrubs.  I suppose the humans are inside, in front of either a computer or a TV.      Donna