Yes, these work. I use these and should have mentioned these. I guess I
didn't
realize that they were discriminating against bees in the way you discuss.
Another Hummer Feeder Problem: Ants
Ants have an incredible ability to detect feeders and they are an equally
irritating
problem. They climb down the feeder suspension (wire) and many of them end
up
drowning in the liquid, which of course pollutes the water. There are two
cures for this
1. Buy a feeder with an ant moat. This is an area above the feeder which
you fill with
water which deters the ants from swimming over. Some do swim, or fall in
and swim,
and still make it to the solution. But, they have a hard time making it
back.
2. Rub the suspension wire with an ant repellent. We use 'Dead First'.
It just takes
a few inches and they will not cross it. It doesn't kill them in spite of
its
name. It just prevents them from crossing the suspension wire. It lasts
for weeks
and is fool proof. The applicator is like a chapstick tube. I don't
remember where
we got ours.
After decades of hummingbird feeding, I've developed a list of the
necessary
components of a hummingbird feeder.
1. Some red in the feeder so it is not necessary to use red coloring in
the sugar water.
2. All (strong) plastic so nothing to rust.
3. A wide mouth so it's easy to clean; can be put in the dishwasher,
or sanitized with chlorox water.
4. An ant moat.
5. Large if you have lots of hummers so you don't have to fill it too
often. But if you have few
hummers, small (or don't fill all the way) because it gets 'old' and
unattractive with time.
6. Don't use too weak a solution, we use 3:1.
I bought a set of 4 such 'perfect' feeders in a single box online a few
months ago. They were $12 each, free shipping.
Bob OBrien Carver OR
On Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 11:45 PM, Larry McQueen <larmcqueen@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I wish to thank all who responded to my honeybee quandary at the
hummingbird feeders. I think I solved the problem by using a feeder of a
different design. The ones that are not bothered by bees are those that
have the bottle of fluid screwed into a pancake-like reservoir and turned
upside down so that the fluid empties into the pancake. The top surface of
this pancake reservoir has many holes, some decorated with plastic flowers.
The holes are probed by the birds and they have to use their tongue to
reach the fluid. The bees cannot reach the surface of the fluid. That
does not keep them from trying, but they are not rewarded. They learn so
quickly; this info must be communicated among the other bees.
Bee guards were useless. On the single-service tube feeder, the bee guard
only made it possible for more bees to collect around the nipple. My
earlier attempt to discourage bees by using olive oil around the bee
guards, worked. No more bees. But also, no more hummingbirds. The oil
didn’t stay put, but spread into areas where I did not want it, ultimately
I’m sure, into the fluid. So since the bees were gone now, I cleaned the
feeders of oil and hung them back up. The bees lost no time and returned
en force.
So I had some old inverted bottle feeders that the hummers previously
ignored when they favored the many single-service tube feeders. Since the
hummers never went to the bottle feeders, I put them away and forgot them.
One respondent suggested I try this type of feeder. All the single feeders
were remove, so the hummers would not have a choice of feeders if I
restored the pancake-like feeders. So far, so good. No bees and the
hummers are using the bottle feeder with the pancake reservoir.
Larry
