Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 16:56:30
-0700
From: Sheri Williamson <tzunun@mindspring.com>
To: HUMNET-L@listserv.lsu.edu
Subject: Re: New Feeder Company?
Nancy wrote:
>I don't know if there is
any real scientific evidence that yellow attracts
>the bees. The Perky Pet feeders I use don't have any yellow
on them, but I
>still have occasional bee problems - mostly with bumblebees
in late summer.
>I even removed the feeders for a week or so and put them out
again with red
>bee guards, but the bees found them just the same.
There's been more than enough
work on insect vision to determine that bees
see best in the yellow to near-ultraviolet wavelengths, and the
fact that
the vast majority of bee-pollinated flowers are shades within
the yellow to
violet range is certainly suggestive of this.
As far as evidence for the effect
this might have on feeder visits, I have
only our experience to go by. About 10 years ago, when Tom and
I were
managing Ramsey Canyon Preserve, long-tongued bumblebees and carpenter
bees
were a nuisance around the Perky Pet feeders. PP obliged my request
for red
"flowers" to replace the standard yellow ones, and we
installed the red ones
on about half the ports of several 210-P models. The results of
this
informal test:
The bees definitely clustered
preferentially around the yellow "flowers,"
even when there were no competing individuals at the red ones.
I actually observed carpenter
bees landing on red ports, taking off again,
and crowding in next to several of their fellows clustered around
yellow
ports. I reported this to Mitch Erickson at PP, and his response
was,"People like the yellow flowers." We eventually
stopped using and selling PP
feeders at the preserve, but until we did the red flowers were
a help. We
never had any problems once we switched to HummZingers and Droll
Yankees
LFs. Our favorite bottle-style feeder, the Best-1, only attracted
bees when
the threaded neck of the base cracked from being tightened too
much (the new
design prevents this and is much easier to clean).
I must add two "your-mileage-may-vary" comments:
* There is bound to be variation,
perhaps not well quantified, among species
of bees in their sensitivity in the visual and near-ultraviolet
spectrum.
* We don't know what role the ultraviolet reflectance of common
feeder
plastics (invisible to the human eye) may play in making some
feeders more
attractive to bees than others.
On the specific subject of the
NectarGuard feeders, the fellow who makes
these licensed the excluder design to Aspects for the HummZinger
II. In
fact, these very ports were used in a early beta test of the excluders
by
Aspects. What I like least about these feeders is that those ports
are
virtually cylindrical rather than funnel-shaped like the HummZinger
original
and II, which makes them less comfortable for species with bills
on the long
and short ends of the bell curve. The narrow tube also increases
risk of
bill damage if the bird twists its head while feeding, as when
attacked by
another hummer.
My 2 cents,
Sheri Williamson
Bisbee, AZ
tzunun@mindspring.com
===================================
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 15:21:57
-0500
Reply-To: BB for Hummingbirds and Gardening for them in the Southeast
<HUMNET-L@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: [HUMNET-L] Fw: Honey bees at feeder
Bees can be serious competitors
for sugar water resources on the TX coast.
The worst I have heard about is at Charlie Brower's banding areas
near
Freeport. I personally have serious competition between
bees and hummers
at my feeders from the fall through early spring; basically, when
natural
flowers are in low abundance. I don't know if they are "natural"
colonies
of European bees or bees from commercial hives. The bees
physically form a
ball around the feeders and during the hot parts of the day there
is no
room for hummers.
My best solution for the feeder
style I use which is a TX brand called
Best-1 is to physically exclude the bees from the primary area
they access
the sugar water which is at the threads of the jar where it contacts
the
red base. I use 1-1/4" pvc pipe cut to length to fit
between the red base
and the glass jar; about 19-22 mm long. It is successful
at excluding bees
and there is light bee traffic at feeder ports.
It also helps to keep feeders
in the shade. European bees like their sugar
water warm. Kind of the way British like tea.
I have been told there are better
feeder designs for excluding bees, but
the cost of those feeders are 3X higher than the ones I use.
Brent Ortego
202 Camino Drive
Victoria, TX 77905
361/576-0022 office
=======================
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 16:08:04 -0600
Reply-To: BB for Hummingbirds and Gardening for them in the Southeast
<HUMNET-L@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU>
Subject: [HUMNET-L] Bees and Birds
I'll give you my two cents worth, before Brent Ortego patents
these
things. We use Best-1 feeders with little bottles (phone
#830-742-3604),
and Brent helped us solve our bee problems. Bees would
collect where the
bottle screws into the base. Cut pieces of 1 " PVC
pipe?15-17 mm
(approx. 5/8" in length) pieces. After filling the
bottles, drop an
"Ortego" fitting on the neck of the bottle before screwing
the bottle into
the base. The bees go to other feeders.
I will put a feeder or two that
bees like away from my hummingbird feeders
and let them swarm those. I find that the brand of feeder
makes a big
difference, and feeders with yellow really attract bees.
It is too windy
for us to use Perky Pet feeders--nectar spills out and bees swarm
all
types.
Thank you, Brent! And,
thanks to his advice, we have more wintering
hummingbirds this year than last year. We have approx. 10
(4+
Buff-bellied, 4? Rufous, 2 Black-chinned). We have 14
feeders in our
winter hummingbird oasis (6 of the 14 are in three neighbors'
yards).
To see a picture, go to Beree's Birds on this website:
http://photos.yahoo.com/beree@sbcglobal.net
Susan & John Beree, Rockport, Texas