Does anyone else put birdhouses in with your crops? I have a strawberry patch and put a bluebird house in with it and the birds never went after anything. I had read bluebirds are protective but also wouldn’t eat where they live. Just luck or do others do it too?
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I am a big fan of bird houses.
Blue birds and other insect eating birds ,usually hunt for bugs close to the house , usually within a hundred ft. Or so.
So placing them around a garden / orchard , I believe ,helps control flying insects .
I need to make more, many of mine are in disrepair.
I put up 70 one year around the farm ,dramatically increased the blue bird population here.
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Bluebirds are ‘territorial’…won’t allow another romantic bluebird couple to build too close.
I’d be interested to hear the evidence if they will keep other birds away from cherry trees or strawberries, apples, blueberries and so forth though.
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Yeah I’m sure on scientific facts. Where we’ve had them, the swallows come in and try to attack but the bluebirds fight them off. Not sure if the swallows would go after the strawberries anyway
Swallows are insect eaters. I had bluebirds nesting in a dead tree stub in my strawberries. They would dive at me while I picked. There wasn’t ‘t much fruit damage that I found there.
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