Saturday, October 6, 2012

Bee Problems and Solutions

On  Thursday the 4th, I did not see any hummers until the afternoon.  I was
concerned and thought their migration time had finally come.  That afternoon,
as I was at my desk in the sunroom, a hummer flew and hovered at the window
in front of me, but did not go to the feeder.  I looked out and saw there was plenty
of nectar remaining.  The hummer flew around the feeder, but never lit to feed
as if she was trying to tell me something.  I went onto the deck to closely
inspect the feeder.  Then I spotted the yellow jacket. Even though I am afraid
of bees, I went after this yellow jacket. I managed to run it off once, but as I
stood guard, it came back.  I had read somewhere that the bees secrete a
toxin into the nectar that harms the hummingbirds.  I didn't locate that reference
this morning before writing this entry, but I did locate in world of hummingbirds.
com that yellow jackets have been known to sting hummers to their death.  All
I knew Thursday afternoon was that I was angrier than the yellow jacket.  I
actually ran it off several times. Then my partner joined me--and we were both
angry--he killed 4-5 yellow jackets in his endeavor to rid the feeder of yellow
jackets with no luck.  He then brought the feeder inside and thoroughly cleaned
it. but the minute he took it back outside, the bees were after the feeder again,
and he brought it back inside.

We checked the ones on the front porch, and they were free of bees, so we hung
that feeder on the front porch.  As we are rarely in the living room, we don't
get to observe them as often, and they don't fly up to window to commune with
us.

As I googled  hummingbirds and yellow jackets this morning, and went to
World of Hummingbirds .com, I learned some valuable information.  They
recommended a hummingbird feeder called HumZinger.  I haven't checked
it out out--but they have something called WASP TRAPS--it is a one way
entrance for yellow jackets.  I will purchase some next year.  This nectar
season is nearly over here.

So if you're having problems with your hummer feeders and yellow jackets,
the solutions can be found at world of hummingbirds.com.

That's all for today!


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