My Hummingbirds are really.... Rescue update

[gini]

The new feeders I have are all plastic with a built in ant guard. If you don't have an ant guard in my area the feeder gets full of ants in a very shot time. i'm amazed that they can find their way up a tree to the feeder.

I had an ant problem big time. My feeder hangs from a bracket that is attached to the eaves of the house.

I used vaseline on the bracket starting from where it is attached to the wall and was liberal with smearing it on.

It has stopped the ants so you might try it.

[Medusa]

last year by late August I had at least 40 Hummingbirds fighting over three small feeders. Each of the small feeder had 3 flowers for feeding. It ran me ragged keeping up with the little suckers appetie. I had to fill the three feeders at least 3 times a day. If I was sitting on the porch and the feeders ran low they would come right up to me and hover a few feet in from of me as if to get my attention.

This year I decided to buy 4 Large feeders that had 4 flowers on each so they would have more places to feed from and maybe cut down on my refill ritual. Up until today I only had three of the feeders out because my hummer population hadn't reached last years peak yet. They were fighting over the 3 so I decided to hang another but in a different location so maybe they would not fight as much. With the new feeder they are all over at it fighting, and only a few are still at the old feeders. This morning while watching them fight over the new feeder, they would swarm in 3's and 4's and then come up and hover in front of me. I don't know what they were trying to tell me but between fighting over the feeder and hovering in front of me no one was actually getting any of the feed. It was very puzzling because they were trying to tell me something but I'm at a loss what it was. All of the feeders were full.

Hmm, that is odd. I have only two hummingbirds that come around that I can see and I refill the feeder twice a week, which I thought was a lot. Usually I refill it once a month, if that.

My local pet shops don't have the same kind so I had to order it online.

Try a garden supply store. That's where I buy mine. Also there are wildlife stores that carry them, too.

[kokopup]

by Medusa

Hmm, that is odd. I have only two hummingbirds that come around that I can see and I refill the feeder twice a week, which I thought was a lot. Usually I refill it once a month, if that.

If i had only a couple of hummers that I could see I'm sure I could get to twice a week on refill. Last year when they were at their peak I could see 12-15 flying and others in the dogwoods resting. They say that your population is 4 times what you can normally count. Right now I'm not filling my feeders up all the way. I want to keep fresh in so I am limiting the amount until the
population gets to what it was by mid August last year. At my peak last year I was going through 4 cups of feed a day. The 4 cups being my standard 3
to 1 mix.

I would never let my feed hang for over a week here because in our August heat it will ferment or go rancid. I had an apartment neighbor years ago that had intoxicated hummers from not changing the feed enough. I found one of the birds laying in a flower bed knocked out.

By Gini

I had an ant problem big time. My feeder hangs from a bracket that is attached to the eaves of the house.

I used vaseline on the bracket starting from where it is attached to the wall and was liberal with smearing it on.

It has stopped the ants so you might try it.

Thanks for the vaseline suggestion. I will give it a try. I have another feeder
that I hadn't put out because of the ants. I will give the vaseline the test
on this one.

[gini]

http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/

Just in case any of you missed this video!

[Medusa]

Will Vaseline keep bees away, too? I watched them actually dive bomb my poor hummingbirds even when they flew away. Poor little things can't feed. When I cleaned the feeder last night, the bees came after me, too.

[kokopup]

I haven't had any experience with the bee issue. I do have a few bees but my
humming birds population has gotten so big they would keep the bees away
with all of their activity. My population of hummers is almost twice what I was
seeing last year. I have 4 big feeder that have to be filled about every 4th
day. I'm even seeing them share this year. I am seeing up to 3 feeding on the same feeder at once. I never saw this last year.

I doubt that the vaseline will help with the bees since they fly in rather than
crawl in. The ants would have to walk over the vaseline.

[kokopup]

It seems like my Humming Bird population grows a little every day. Last year I had 3 small feeders that I had to fill several times a day. This year with 4 large feeders I am not running like I had to last year but I am still amazed at how much these little guys are consuming. I have already put out almost 3 gallons of sugar water. For some reason they will favor one feeder over another and the feeder they favor will be emptied in a day. The favored feeder will change from day to day.

I am really amazed watching these guys fight/play where they fly in circles and chase each other around. My porch has post about every 10 feet and they will come zooming under the porch, by me sitting in a rocker, then do circles around these post, while flying in tandem. There are big trees in their flight path and they zoom in circles around these then back under the porch.
I keep expecting to find one or both on the ground due to a mid air crash into a tree or porch post.

I have really enjoyed watching these guys play and I think they enjoy putting on a show for me.