Tuesday, August 08, 2006

The birds and the bees


Yesterday I read Birdchick's post about the problem of bees at hummingbird feeders and it prompted me to post some photos of our bees and our low-tech solution.


bees on hummingbird feeder


I'm no bee expert, but it seems that we mainly have 2 kinds of bees here - little bees (above) and big bees (below).


bee on hummingbird feeder


About 2 weeks ago they started swarming around our hummingbird feeders, effectively keeping the hummingbirds away. Two things helped - keeping the outside of the hummer feeders scrupulously clean and dry, and placing plates filled with sugar water about 6 feet from each feeder to lure the bees away.


bees eating sugar water


In the next photo you can see the size difference between "big bee" and "little bee".




1 comment:

LauraHinNJ said...

Those are wasps - I know that much.

Funny I don't have any problem with bees (or wasps) at feeders - ants are another story.

Lots of wasps arund the pond, looking for a drink, I guess.