![]() They you may get a good acrobatic shot as they are startled by the shutter. With a saucer style feeder, you get them hovering level above the dish, only, unless they react to the click of the shutter. The birds approach the feeder from a wide variety of angles, and so you get more interesting poses. I prefer my modified perky-pet for photography. Use a port brush to clean the port, it's hard to get the port-star-thingy in and out. Use care when drilling the hole larger, the wall of the port tube will be quite thin. Without extra nectar dripping below the spout, bees are less likely to find the sugar. It serves to almost totally eliminate dripping from inverted bottle style feeders, and it works great. This keeps the port "closed", but allows the bird to insert it's tongue or beak. I bought this at a bird supply store in the hummingbird section. Then I use a drill (1/4 inch, I think) and enlarge the hole in the port, and insert a little "nipple" of clear plastic with a star shaped slit on the end. I saw off 3 of the 4 ports, and plug them with hot glue. As I said, I discard the flowers, perch, and bee guards. I also modify my bottle-style perky-pet feeders. Perhaps they'll discover it after the birds have sponged nectar from the feeder onto the port with their tongues, but this is a very small amount, and bees don't generally find it. They can't get to the sugar through the port, and aren't attracted anyway. If you're pretty careful filling and carrying it after cleaning and filling it, there will be NO sugar on the outside of the feeder, and therefore nothing to attract the bees. Nectar NEVER touches the port When you carry the feeder, carry it by the hook, and the nectar won't slosh up against the rim of the lid, which can leak, and the ports. The ring has a red lid, with ports on the top for feeding. That's a saucer type feeder, which is a little flying saucer, with an ant trap in the center, a brass hook to hang it by, and a clear plastic ring to hold the necter. The "permanent" solution is to use an absolutely bee-proof feeder. Once the ones one it leave, it takes a while for others to return. ![]() The key here is that bees take a while to discover a nectar source, and can't find a feeder immediately if it's moved about 20 or 30 feet. After a few hours, you can rehang it, or hang it elsewhere. Often the bees can't find the moved feeder, after a short time, and then you can take it in the house anc clean it. ![]() When honeybees swarm my feeder, a short term measure is to move the feeder (gently) to a different location, and hang a bee proof feeder where the feeder originally was. My carpenter bees never seem to bother my feeders, so perhaps that's because I DON'T use bee guards! The birds don't seem to mind much.Īnyway, back to bees. That way I get more photos of hoveriing birds and fewer of perched birds. I even use wire cutters and cut off perches if that's necessary. I immediately throw away the little plastic floweres, bee guards, and perches on any hummingbird feeders I have. I like to use feeders without bee guards, since guards are extra ugly with regard to photography, as well as being a nuisance to clean. Regarding your question:īees are attracted to yellow, much like hummers are attracted to red. It turned out that a blue pen had leaked in her shirt pocket. My wife was in the teacher's lounge and one of her co-workers asked if she'd been breast-feeding a smurf. I would be eternally grateful ( and so would the bs and bbs!!!!!! ) for feedback here ( unless some higher power redirects this ) or you can PM/e-mail me, the more the merrier as they say, please and you'll get brownie points in b-heaven I'm sure. ) to help out at strategic times: after a cold/wet/windy night esp. In our part of the world the bs and bbs are in quite serious trouble for several reasons and I'm doing some research into the feasibility and possibility of devising ways to supplement the natural feeding ( as in planting flowers etc. I would like to enlist some help please, from hummingbird watchers/-feeders ANYWHERE in the world: Does anyone ever notice bumblebees/bees on their feeders or has done so in the past ( perhaps on a different feeder ) and if you do, to what extent ( in numbers ) and is the feeding successful ( do they feed or just nosey around ) and what sort of a feeder it is that you have seen them on a) successful and b) unsuccessful? I know this is quite specific but you are the experts in small-and-fast flying creatures watching and it's amazing what one actually notices when one pays particular attention to it. HELP - bees and bumblebees on hummingbird feeders?
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