Mine come and go with the thunderstorms/heavy rain. I had 2 or 3 for a week, put feeders out and they left. Zero birds for a week. Dark clouds boiling, thunder, then saw the hummbirds hitting the feeders like dive bombers. Ten to 15 birds. Then they left. We got a couple yesterday. Mine start building in numbers in July. By the end of August I am feeding 300+ birds, 3 gallons of sugar water a day.
The vaseline didn't work for me to keep the ants away. I haven't found an answer for the bees but I did for the ants. I will go out and take a photo and come back on my edit time to show you./Be right back.
Okay, I loaded the photos. I sink my feeder pole in the ground, use sack crete to build a bird bath around it. Dried to the pole so the water won't leak out. Ants can't swim across the water to get to the pole. Works like a charm. I will be posting pictures of the birds in August if they come like they usually do.
Regards, Dorothy
I can feed 120 birds on this pole
[ATTACH=CONFIG]83653[/ATTACH]
Ants can't swim across the bird bath water
[ATTACH=CONFIG]83655[/ATTACH]
Pretend it is clear water. My husband just mowed the lawn.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]83656[/ATTACH]