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Bees defeated!
Aug. 1st, 2010 08:08 amFor a couple of weeks, the bees have been fascinated by our hummingbird feeders. In previous seasons we haven't had this problem, which makes me think there may be a new beehive close by. I tried removing the feeders for a a couple of days - the common wisdom is that the bees will forget about them. Not so - I guess Albuquerque bees are smarter than the average bee!
I called a local store - Wild Birds Unlimited - and spoke to a very nice woman who explained about the length of the honey bee's proboscis. The problem with our feeders, she said, is that the nectar is forced by gravity to the tip of the plastic florets, making it very attractive to bees with a short proboscis. The solution was to switch to saucer-shaped feeders, where the nectar remains safely out of the bee's reach, but still very accessible to the longer tongue of the hummer.
Zoomed over to their store late yesterday afternoon, and picked up a couple of the required saucer feeders. They were on sale, so I saved $5 on each one - score!
I couldn't replace the feeders until after dusk, when the swarm of bees on the feeder finally went home to bed. Today, the new feeders are up, and a few very disappointed bees are visiting, then leaving empty handed. The hummers meanwhile seem fine with the new arrangement.
One thing I don't understand - the feeders have six florets each, making space for 12 hummers at a time. But our hummers are so territorial, we're lucky to see one feeding on each feeder before they are chased away by the current alpha bird. I wonder if there is a trick to getting lots of them at once? Maybe I'll phone that nice lady again...
I called a local store - Wild Birds Unlimited - and spoke to a very nice woman who explained about the length of the honey bee's proboscis. The problem with our feeders, she said, is that the nectar is forced by gravity to the tip of the plastic florets, making it very attractive to bees with a short proboscis. The solution was to switch to saucer-shaped feeders, where the nectar remains safely out of the bee's reach, but still very accessible to the longer tongue of the hummer.
Zoomed over to their store late yesterday afternoon, and picked up a couple of the required saucer feeders. They were on sale, so I saved $5 on each one - score!
I couldn't replace the feeders until after dusk, when the swarm of bees on the feeder finally went home to bed. Today, the new feeders are up, and a few very disappointed bees are visiting, then leaving empty handed. The hummers meanwhile seem fine with the new arrangement.
One thing I don't understand - the feeders have six florets each, making space for 12 hummers at a time. But our hummers are so territorial, we're lucky to see one feeding on each feeder before they are chased away by the current alpha bird. I wonder if there is a trick to getting lots of them at once? Maybe I'll phone that nice lady again...
