North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Crows have an inconsistent relationship with fruit around here, sometimes
showing great interest in ripe fruit and sometimes ignoring it- depending
on general food supply, I guess.

If you can't shoot them you can exclude them with nets.  I prefer woven
double strand pollypro. netting for the purpose although Farm Tek sells a
very heavy mono-filament avium netting in large enough sizes to use for the
purpose.   The thin monofilament is only practical if you use a frame which
is too much work for me.  Crows are not as agile as smaller birds and I've
found that netting loosely drooped over trees works for them around here.
No telling about your crows though.

It's hard to fine the woven stuff in wide enough rolls, unfortunately, as
the main market seems to be grape vineyards.  For free-standing trees you
need a 30' width at least.  Takes a lot of time to sew pieces together but
it is an alternative.