Bees At Hummingbird Feeders

Wahoogaz · ‎03-12-2010

Never had this problem before ... yesterday and today, bees have been hogging all 4 hummingbird feeders ... so much so, that the birds haven't had much of a chance to feed. Any tricks to keeping the bees away?

fthunt · ‎12-24-2010

Depends on the type of Hbird feeders you have. Some styles do allow bugs, bees and ants to feed. Mine is flat type with 4 holes for birds to eat - the tall hanging style drops the sweet juice and it calls all insects in. Also the juice is sweet sugar and sticky and if it's dripping down - not much you can do except get a new style and keep it clean as possible.

itsmagic · ‎08-08-2011

I’ve had bees at my feeder too especially late summer. I’ve got an ant moat to keep ants from crawling into it but I haven’t figured out how to keep bees away.

tipsy · ‎03-11-2010

@itsmagic wrote:
I’ve had bees at my feeder too especially late summer. I’ve got an ant moat to keep ants from crawling into it but I haven’t figured out how to keep bees away.

There is a brand of feeder that sells bee-guards, they are little plastic things that you stick into the holes. The hummingbirds can still eat but not the bees. Sorry I can't tell you what the brand is because my sister bought me the feeder & put the bee-guards in. The moat is great at keeping the ants out!

I also have an oriole feeder, which is the hanging kind. I haven't gotten too many bees & they haven't been bothersome this year. But I'm getting ants so I take the feeder down every night & wash it out. I put fresh nectar in in the morning & hang it back out. The orioles will be leaving soon so I won't have to do this much longer!

Wahoogaz · ‎03-12-2010

Not sure what's going on. Same style feeders we've been using for years ... maybe the local bee population has exploded this summer. We'd always get the occasional bee at the feeders, but the past 3 days or so they've been swarming. The bees were bad enough yesterday afternoon (i.e. tons of them) that the hummingbirds kept leaving.

I went to Walmart this morning and was able to get 2 feeders that have bee guards on them. My husband put one out a little while ago - so far, the bees are checking it out but not hanging around it too long. The other 3 feeders probably had at least 20 bees on them. I'd hate to have them scare the hummingbirds away.

We've already got ant guards on all the feeders, so we solved the ant problem.

If the bee guard feeders work out, I'll definitely be getting more. I thought I also saw something online that you could get the bee guards to put on your existing feeders.

Still Raining · ‎03-30-2014

Second vote for the type with built in guards.

I had had problems with ants that learned to swim this summer. Unreal. Never happened before.

Drythe · ‎07-09-2011

I’ve sprayed the ports lightly with regular Pam. Didn’t slow down Hummers, but bees don’t like.

"Animals are not my whole world, but they have made my world whole" ~ Roger Caras

Wahoogaz · ‎03-12-2010

@Drythe wrote:
I’ve sprayed the ports lightly with regular Pam. Didn’t slow down Hummers, but bees don’t like.

Hmmm, I may have to give that a try on one and see how it goes.

I'm also wondering if we take the feeders down for a day or two, will the bees move on ...

Wahoogaz · ‎03-12-2010

@Drythe wrote:
I’ve sprayed the ports lightly with regular Pam. Didn’t slow down Hummers, but bees don’t like.

Wow, I sprayed the feeders with Pam about 30 minutes ago. Bees came back and buzzed around for a minute or two and they haven't been back yet. A couple of hummingbirds stopped by the feeders and drank - so they don't seem to mind. So far, this is a good solution.