The quail are eating my garden!

[RobinB]

This evening right around dusk, my husband looked out the window at our back garden and said, "wow, look at the quail!" I ran out and chased away about a dozen birds. They had pecked and dug several 6" deep holes around the bases of my back row of tomatoes, ate some of the lower leaves of the tomato plants, and took the top leaves off of a row of pole beans that are just coming up (yes they were put in very late). The good news is that they didn't kill any of the tomatoes (this time) and most of the beans aren't up yet.

That back row of tomatoes is still fairly small, so I rushed around and put cages around them.

The plan tomorrow? Well, a trip to Home Depot for sure. I will wrap the bottoms of all the tomato cages with bird netting or chicken wire, unless someone has a better idea. But, how do I cover the beans? We don't have much money. We live in a very windy area, so solid cloth like row covers won't work. I have some grade stakes, so I guess I could pound them in around the beans and somehow drape more bird netting or chicken wire (whatever is cheapest) over and or around them... Quail don't fly very well, does anybody know if I need to cover the top? How tall should the sides be? The area is too large to completely fence in, so I'll probably have to cover things separately. How can I attach bird netting or chicken wire to wooden stakes very cheaply? I do have some cable ties. Any help is greatly appreciated!

My guess is that once the plants are tall enough, the birds won't be able to do much damage... right? Two 8 ft tall rows of beans should stop them... right?

Aaaaaaahhhh, I didn't need this right now!