OT - Homemade Hummingbird Feeder

On Aug 5, 1:54 pm, [email protected] (J T) wrote:
> http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hummingbird/msg061501211309.h...
>
> Neat. Simple, once you've read about how it goes togetherr that
> is. Not sure if I'll make one, but I think my older son might, I've
> printed a copy of this out for him. I'd like to hear if any of you make
> one. I just wonder, if I wanted to design, then make, a hummingbird
> feeder, would I have come up with something like this? Probably not, I
> don't have an tequila bottles. LOL

BX cable end bushings come already drilled through, and might be
cheaper
than wire nuts. Red ones are less attractive to wasps than yellow
ones,
more attractive to hummers -- no need to add controversial red dye to
the nectar. CPCV (drinking water) pipe leaches fewer plasticizers
than
white PVC, which I'd be hesitant to use.

Design is virtually unlimited, given your imagination and the variety
of available
connectors. You could build a ring-shaped feeder as easily as a
straight
line "bar."

On Mon, 6 Aug 2007 07:47:38 -0400, Mike Marlow wrote:
>
> "Maxwell Lol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > [email protected] (J T) writes:
> >
> >> http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hummingbird/msg061501211309.html?43
> >
> > Hummingbirds are territorial, and will often chase other hummers away.
> > We only get one at a time.
>
> They are indeed territorial, but we consistently get a dozen of them at our
> feeders. They chase each other around if more than one comes to feed at a
> time, but that's not always the case. We consistently watch all of them at
> the two feeders we have out.

One male is guarding two feeders here in NJ. He sits in a nearby tree
where he can see both feeders. Any other males, including juveniles, get
chased off, sometimes before they can settle at the feeder. Seems
somewhat violent, too. Sometimes I can hear them collide, along with the
vocal chatter. He seems to let females feed at will, but once in a while
if a female is on the feeder for too long, he comes down and hovers in
front of her, amd assumes what I guess is a threatening posture - mouth
wide open. She usually gets the hint. If she doesn't, he whacks her just
as he does the males that don't move off of their own volition.

I'm not sure if the behavior is the same all day - we usually can only
watch the goings on during the late afternoon and evening.

It is interesting to look at the photos posted with the description of
that feeder. It looks to me like most of the birds (all that I can see
well enough) are female, or perhaps juvenile males. I can clearly see
only one male, in one of the photos.

--
Art Greenberg
artg at eclipse dot net

J T wrote:

> http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hummingbird/msg061501211309.html?43
>
> Neat. Simple, once you've read about how it goes togetherr that
> is. Not sure if I'll make one, but I think my older son might, I've
> printed a copy of this out for him. I'd like to hear if any of you make
> one. I just wonder, if I wanted to design, then make, a hummingbird
> feeder, would I have come up with something like this? Probably not, I
> don't have an tequila bottles. LOL
>
>
>
> JOAT
> I do things I don't know how to do, so that I might learn how to do
> them.
> - Picasso
>
I guess we have other kinds of problems up here in the sticks: bears.
They do have a sweet tooth and will climb up on your deck and stand on a
chair to knock down feeder. My neighbor always brings the feeder
inside before nightfall. Hope he has a strong door.
twitch,
jo4hn

jo4hn wrote:
>
>>
> I guess we have other kinds of problems up here in the sticks: bears.
> They do have a sweet tooth and will climb up on your deck and stand
> on a chair to knock down feeder. My neighbor always brings the
> feeder inside before nightfall. Hope he has a strong door.
> twitch,

Your neighbor needs one of these:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/images/060613-cat-bear_big.jpg&imgrefurl=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060613-cat-bear.html&h=308&w=231&sz=68&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=vOe78K_Wo2EIoM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=102&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcat%2Bbear%26svnum%3D100%26hl%3Den%26rls%3DGGLJ,GGLJ:2006-43,GGLJ:en

"Maxwell Lol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> [email protected] (J T) writes:
>
>> http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hummingbird/msg061501211309.html?43
>
> Hummingbirds are territorial, and will often chase other hummers away.
> We only get one at a time.

They are indeed territorial, but we consistently get a dozen of them at our
feeders. They chase each other around if more than one comes to feed at a
time, but that's not always the case. We consistently watch all of them at
the two feeders we have out.

>
> Also - you need to clean the glass every 3 days. That glass will be a
> pain to clean.

Hmmmm... I don't think my wife cleans the glass at all while the feeders are
out for the season. Maybe she does and I'm just not aware of it, but if she
does it certainly is not that frequently.

--

-Mike-
[email protected]

[email protected] (J T) writes:

> http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hummingbird/msg061501211309.html?43

Hummingbirds are territorial, and will often chase other hummers away.
We only get one at a time.

Also - you need to clean the glass every 3 days. That glass will be a
pain to clean.

"Mike Marlow" <[email protected]> writes:

> > Also - you need to clean the glass every 3 days. That glass will be a
> > pain to clean.
>
> Hmmmm... I don't think my wife cleans the glass at all while the feeders are
> out for the season. Maybe she does and I'm just not aware of it, but if she
> does it certainly is not that frequently.

We get mold inside the feeder from the syrup. We also do NOT use the
"red" packaged syrup. We just use ssugar and water. (don't use
honey!) Hummers have very sensitive systems. Someone who banded one
said the bird peed red, from the food coloring in the syrup. It's not
good for them.