Magpies love the sparkly, so hang a couple of small glittery items on strong chains in a tree across the yard.

The magpies will be too busy trying to steal the sparkly and they won't have time to bother your apples.

Such good looking birds to be such a nuisance. If we had a cow with even a small cut, she'd have to be placed inside the barn until she healed, or else the magpies would rip the living flesh out of the wound.

2 of them tried to steal my puppy. One distracting the mother and the other sneaking in behind her and trying to grab the pup. They are smart (unfortunately).

I don't think footies would stop them. Hire a kid to sit out there under the trees with a shotgun.

Yup. I've been protecting my small crop of sweet cherries with two hawk decoys, one suspended and one on a pole. Worked fairly well. I picked the ripe ones before the weekend, then moved the hawk over to my pie cherry, which wasn't quite ready. Upon our return on Monday all the remaining sweet cherries were stripped from the tree.