OT Bees on my humming bird feeder,

RayP(MI)

Well-known Member
And the hummingbirds don't much like them. At any time there's about ten bees. They tend to cluster around one port, but circle the feeder regularly keeping birds at bay. Any ideas? Suppose I could just take it down, birds won't be around much longer. But I would like to keep it up until they leave for the winter. Give 'em a good start!
 
Have heard the longer a feeder is up the longer they stay even if means they miss chance of making to breeding grounds in time.
 
Ray - my brother sprays Pam cooking spray right on the feeder. My wife tried it, and she says it keeps the bees away, but it WILL collect dust and get nasty looking.

We still have a good crop of hummers here in Southern Illinois, but we can tell that a lot of them are "travelers" because it's evident that they don't know their way around like the summer birds.
 
Around here the bees are dying out. I guess your bees are also trying to get stocked up for the winter. It comes down to who does the most good in the community. Stan
 
Was mowing under a pear tree in a corner of the yard a couple years ago and a bird "exploded" out of the tree, right by my face. Upon further investigation, it was a hummingbird, and there was a little tiny nest with two little tiny eggs. It was close enough to the ground that I could hold the grandkids up to see, and we watched it. I would use binoculars from the patio to determine when Mom was away, then we'd go and look before she came back. Both eggs hatched, we watched them grow, then one day, everybody was gone. I checked around on the ground, and didn't find any dead babies, so I guess it was a happy ending for the brood. Grandkids were sad they were gone, but I explained that this is how it is supposed to work, and that now there are 2 more hummingbirds in the world. That cheered them up.
 
Sprayed the feeder with Vegalene as we had no Pam in the house. Actually only sprayed one side of the bottom. Bees went away. We'll see for how long! Couple orbiting the feeder from time to time but they don't light and lick up the syrup.
 
Ray, are they honey bees or yellow jackets. I have a lot of the latter swarming around the place. They seem to abandon their nests in fall and look for sweet things...even rotting meat. Real nuisance at times.
 

We had this problem with yellow jackets. My approach was to park my shop vac withing reach and then quietly and gently move the nozzle up to one of the critters while it fed. It would magically disappear down the tube. Would occasionally even get one on the wing. Very sporting--almost as much fun as dove hunting!
 
Our Rufus humming birds also went away 2 weeks ago. There is still an Anna's hanging about (slightly larger) and has been here through last winter.
 
I fed around 15 head (hard to count ya know) of hummers all summer despite the bees, which I figured it was the birds problem and if they weren't smart enough to deal with it they could starve to death. HOWEVER in the last few days they have disappeared yayyyyyyyy

John T
 
howdy, there may have been rare occasions of this, but ours have always left in a certain time frame, and I always keep the feeders stocked and leave them up for two or three weeks after they leave, just in case.
 
Dave, I had never really thought about it, but that does seem to happen late in summer. I guess yellow jackets are like honey bees, they need to "feed up" for winter.
Actually, I don't believe they abandon their nests, they are just more visible because of feeding habits, because I have disturbed yellow jackets nests while cutting wood on a warm winter day.
 

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