Bees All Over Hummer Feeders At Daughter's House

[Jen]

Curious... About 10 blocks away from my daughters house there are a few hives in a field. She has clouds of bees all over her hummer feeders, they are going thru two feeders a day. I was wondering if we fashioned a table feeder somewhere else in her yard, that maybe it would pull the bees away from the hummer feeders?

Any suggestions?

[barry42001]

They will have to find it again, and they will use both

[Gypsi]

put bee guards on the hummer feeder and a 5 gallon bucket for the bees, it is easier to refill.

[Jen]

bee gaurds huh? Is that something I can get off of Amazon or somewhere?

[Gypsi]

probably ace hardware. My old strawberry hummer feeder came with them and it wasn't an expensive feeder. Looked like little flowers, made the hole smaller and just a little deeper than a bee's tongue could reach.

meantime 5 gallon bucket should have floating sticks from your scrap bucket for the bees to stand on, lol

[Jen]

Ha! The scrap wood would work nicely    I like sliced cork, I call them 'bee boats'. This tiny cauldron is usually full of water and the cork floats.
 

[Gypsi]

starving bees will SINK a big plastic float in a bucket and drown, so many many scrap woods or corks are advised. We've been in drought since late 2010. Seen a lot of starving bees

[pistolpete]

Just curious why, after all the adulterated honey you've suffered through, you'd think that feeding someone's bees with sugar would be a good idea.  Humming bird feeders should be removed this time of year anyway, to encourage them to migrate south.

[LazyBkpr]

I cant say I ever heard of removing the feeders to get the hummingbirds to fly south?
   We.. and everyone I know leave our feeders out until the birds vanish in the fall..  I still have a dozen of them fighting over the feeders..  We have some bees that gather around the feeders, but not very many..  When I notice bees on the hummingbird feeders I know its time to put syrup out for the bees.
   No one here has supers on at this time so feeding can begin..  There are a plethora of flowers everywhere, and the goldenrod is turning entire fields yellow.. but there is NO nectar coming in.. 
   What is in hummingbird food?  Would it be as good for the bees as it is for the hummingbirds?  I'll have to look it up...

[Gypsi]

In Michigan and British Columbia you would remove the feeders.  I don't use hummingbird feeders, I feed the hummers Turks Cap and Lantana, Butterfly Bush and Vitex, and a bit of 4 Oclock if they are out in the afternoon. The hummers stop here in North Texas to fuel up for the last stretch of their flight to Mexico.  They leave when they are ready

On sad news my butterfly plantings should be covered with Monarchs now, I have seen only 1 Monarch so far this year.

[barry42001]

Taken yesterday, monarchs still breeding here, during summer the caterpillars chewed the milkweed down to stalks, plants are just about almost, practicality recovered...nearly. had caterpillars last season well into December.

[Jen]

Pete- "Humming bird feeders should be removed this time of year anyway, to encourage them to migrate south.

    Hi Pete    Quite the contrary my friend. How do you think hummers find the energy and food To Go South? They have to fly all the way from Canada to lower California and Mexico. They have to have something to eat to sustain the migration, the extra feeder food helps them along. If they can't find nectar, of which there is not enough in California, they stop at feeders all along the way. We leave our hummer feeders up until the sugar water has iced up.

Pete- "Just curious why, after all the adulterated honey you've suffered through,

   K, so... It wasn't the hummer sugar syrup that the bees were bringing into the hive, it was the red dye that I was unhappy with. Apologies if I didn't make the clear this summer.

Scroll down to near the bottom, it explains the migration of the hummers
http://www.birdwatchers.com/humfdrs.html

[riverbee]

like scott, we leave the hummer feeders out......for all the hummers that continue to migrate south.....and when there aren't any, they are taken down.

[pistolpete]

I guess it's like bee keeping: regional.  Around here if you leave feeders up, the hummers stay longer and can get caught by an early frost and die. 

As for the sugar, I have long argued against any form of open feeding.   There are exceptions, like scott, who know all their neighbours in a two mile radius.  But for the rest of us ...   I know of at least two bee keepers in my area that still have supers on because they got too busy to extract. 

[LazyBkpr]

Agreed.. if there are other beeks nearby open feeding is not a good idea..    In my case, I am hoping that the feral hives are getting a bit of it to take home.  I really want them to survive the ww...  the cold weather approaching.

[Jen]

Ah yes! the feral hives, that's a good consideration.

Pete, I've read quite a bit about the migration of the hummingbird, here is another thought to consider. The instinct in the hummingbird is so powerful, to migrate south and mate, that you simply cannot hold them back. It is suggested that the hummers that stay behind may be old or ill or injured and know that they cannot make the journey. So feeders can keep them comfortable for as long as they live 

[Riverrat]

Put the feed out and keep it full.  There will be  keep in the neighborhood that will be baffled when there is a flow on in the middle of a drought. 

[Jen]

Took me a minute to get that one riverrat! Now, if I do that, at least it won't be ruby red syrup 

[riverbee]

"I guess it's like bee keeping: regional.  Around here if you leave feeders up, the hummers stay longer and can get caught by an early frost and die."

pete, birds and insects, including honey bees, are 'smarter' than we are, to a degree that i think we will never know or understand but can only appreciate their innate or natural 'instincts' and perhaps maybe learn what makes that 'tick' in their world, their biology, their behavior.  that said, i can only think that we have been falsely taught to remove hummingbird feeders because they are too dumb to figure out they need to move south.  i don't believe this is true and they are not dumb.  i think what you are seeing is those hummers migrating and coming through from further north of you, and when the migration ceases, pull the feeders.  just my observation of hummingbirds. i really don't think they stay longer, they move south when their time clock says so, and i think  what you have are hummers that are migrating and moving south from your location.

like you pete, as far as open feeding for honey bees.....i disagree with this also and don't practice this.  for me it causes too many problems and am conscious of others who may have hives near me....even though they don't care what they do....i do.
others this might work for, for me it doesn't.  like rat said "Put the feed out and keep it full.  There will be  keep in the neighborhood that will be baffled when there is a flow on in the middle of a drought.

and when they take the 'honey' off it will taste like.........and not be honey......