Old 05-23-2010, 05:22 PM
  #13  
dsb38327
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: MS
Posts: 3,434
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I am in Tennessee and am on their migration path. (If that is what we call it). I get dribs and drabs until mid July then the build starts.
August is my busy month. For (basically) the last 3 weeks of August I feed 3 gallons of sugar water a day.
(Yes, 4cupswater/1cupsugar). I buy 25lbs of sugar a week for the last 4 weeks.
I use 20 to 25 feeders that have from 5 to 10 holes per feeder. I make concrete baths from sack crete, sink my pole in the middle of the bird bath while the mix is wet. When it dries we keep it filled with water to keep the ants out of the feeders. I haven't found a solution for the bees and wasps. I just let the hummers chase them away. The hummers will not drink the water if there is a bee or ant in it.
My bird watchers have guessed we have from 300 to 400 hummers at our peak. It is like a bee hive. They seem to come in after a thunder storm or hard rain and leave just before a thunder storm or hard rain. They seem to travel in groups. You can tell one group has gone and a new group has come in.
(I am in a small town, with neighbors all around me. The neighbors have very few hummers and they swarm my feeders. I don't know how they pick and choose but they do.)
I am looking for a photo that might show you. I space the feeders so it is hard to get them in the photo they swarm so much.
I have not found my photos of them so I may have deleted them. If I did I can take some in August.
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