Birds and the Bees

  On our trip this past summer, Honey found this fancy double-decker Hummingbird feeder.  It was one of the very few souvenirs we bought.  It looks great, but it is a very complicated design - difficult to fill and to reassemble without leaks.  It took a while for the birds to decide to use it, but they do -  just not as much as the others.

We have learned that Hummingbirds have a different aesthetic – their taste in architecture is a lot simpler – and they much prefer the basic (cheaper the better) feeders like this Wal-Mart Special.

This past weekend, we noticed a couple of honeybees had discovered the feeder above.  Word passed quickly, and by Tuesday we had dozens of bees swarming the feeders.

At first, the Hummers would zoom in and try to chase the bees away, but they eventually decided to co-exist, even though the bees were so thick it was hard to find an opening that wasn’t blocked by a bee’s butt.  The bees were not attacking the Hummers, but we knew that red wasps would and were actually capable of killing birds.

I went on line looking for a way to control the bees, and on one Hummingbird forum I found a suggestion – change the sugar water concentration from 1:4 (one part sugar to four parts water) to 1:6, and the bees will lose interest!

We tried it and it works. 

When I went out to retrieve the feeders, there were literally dozens of bees.  I had to shake the feeders and swing them around to get the bees off, and a swarm of them followed me to the house.  Fifteen minutes later, when I headed back out with the diluted mixture, there were still a couple dozen buzzing around the hangers and even a few bees waiting for me at the back door!

Once we hung the feeders, it only took a few minutes and the honeybees were gone. 

The Hummers are feeding on the 1:6 solution although activity may be a little lower than usual this morning – time will tell.

ps – We always add a drop or two of red food coloring to our sugar water solution.  The birds don't care whether it’s there or not, but we do it anyway. It looks nice, and it makes it a lot easier to tell at a glance whether the feeders need refilling.