The attack of the birds
A few years ago, I a purchased a bundle of fruit bushes and dwarf fruit trees for my allotment plot. I knew that I had to protect ripening fruit from bird attacks so I invested in a lot of netting.
I covered over each bush/tree with the netting, but found that although most fruit was protected, the outer-most fruit suffered a little.
The other problem was that it was very difficult and a chore to get to the fruit and check the levels of ripeness on a regular basis.
A cover-up
I saw fruit cages on an episode of Gardeners World and decided it would be the perfect solution for my plot.
If you are considering buying or making a fruit cage of your own, make sure that it has a sturdy and heavy duty frame. A weak frame will suffer during high winds, heavy rain and snow as additional weight spread across the mesh will contort and add strain.