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mollyc

macrumors G3
Aug 18, 2016
8,065
50,760
Web_May_10_2022_001-2.jpg
 

Darmok N Jalad

macrumors 603
Sep 26, 2017
5,425
48,337
Tanagra (not really)
I need to get a feeder for these guys - in the mornings I’m frequently visited by a couple, sometimes they hover a foot from my face. Then I blink, and they fly off.
I put up one of these feeders, and the honeybees took it over. Once a hive finds one, they'll drain it pretty fast and the hummingbirds won't come (and your kids won't want to go outside). A friend gave some advice if that happens--put up 2 feeders, one near where the bees come from, and maybe they will leave the other alone. Too much work for me, so I took ours down. Fortunately, the garden behind us has enough food to keep the birds around anyway.
 

macguru212

macrumors demi-god
Apr 17, 2009
1,276
16,964
AZ/NYC/Tokyo
I put up one of these feeders, and the honeybees took it over. Once a hive finds one, they'll drain it pretty fast and the hummingbirds won't come (and your kids won't want to go outside). A friend gave some advice if that happens--put up 2 feeders, one near where the bees come from, and maybe they will leave the other alone. Too much work for me, so I took ours down. Fortunately, the garden behind us has enough food to keep the birds around anyway.
Just now I put a feeder up - we'll see if I end up with hummingbird pics or bee pics :D
 
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Jumpthesnark

macrumors 65816
Apr 24, 2022
1,242
5,146
California
I put up one of these feeders, and the honeybees took it over. Once a hive finds one, they'll drain it pretty fast and the hummingbirds won't come (and your kids won't want to go outside). A friend gave some advice if that happens--put up 2 feeders, one near where the bees come from, and maybe they will leave the other alone. Too much work for me, so I took ours down. Fortunately, the garden behind us has enough food to keep the birds around anyway.
I've had the occasional bee come by and hang out. It was only one at a time, and they never seemed to bother the hummingbirds. Probably like three times over the past 5 years, from what I saw.

Some orioles found the feeder last spring though. They were not friendly, and chased the hummingbirds away. I put some sliced oranges out for them, they showed no interest and eventually moved on.
 
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