How to keep bees away from your hummingbird feeder

Adding a hummingbird feeder to your garden is a great way to attract these beautiful birds into your space, but a feeder can also attract some unwanted guests.

Bees, wasps, and other insects are attracted to sugar water inside hummingbird feeders and can quickly crowd out the space. Your intention may be to attract hummingbirds but its very possible that a large swarm of insects arrives in their place.

The same nectar recipes that attract hummingbirds will draw these other creatures to your hummingbird feeder.

Fortunately, there are many effective ways to keep bees and insects away from your hummingbird feeder.

Here are some tips you can use.

Use red saucer feeders

Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red while bees are attracted to the color yellow. Using red hummingbird feeders will naturally draw more hummingbirds than bees and insects.

Different types of hummingbird feeders are less insect friendly than others. Saucer feeders are ideal for keeping insects at bay because they position the nectar in a way that insects cannot reach. Hummingbirds, however, use their long tongues to feed and can reach much further than their insect competition.

Other feeder designs include aspects specifically designed to prevent insects from being able to feed. Many hummingbird feeds have built-in ant moats or bee guards which prevent insects from accessing the nectar without stopping the hummingbirds.

You can also place a decoy that will attract bees away from your hummingbird feeder. Placing a bowl of highly concentrated sugar-water close to where the feeder is located will attract most insects, particularly bees.

Once they have caught the scent of the sugar-water and begin feeding from it, move the bowl further away from the hummingbird feeder.

Clean the hummingbird feeder regularly

Hummingbirds are graceful fliers but messy eaters. As they drink water with their long beaks, drops of nectar will fall onto the feeder. This spillage attracts insects.

This spillage isn’t limited to hummingbirds lining up at their all-you-can-eat nectar buffet.

After filling the feeder, it is important to wipe it down with a moist cloth to clean any nectar that spilled onto the outside. Insects can detect the faintest smell of something sweet so keeping the exterior of the feeder clean will help prevent them from crashing your party.

Make sure not to overfill your hummingbird feeder and to repair any leaks that appear. Doing so will keep the area attractive to hummingbirds and limit the number of bees and other insects that show up in competition.

Cleaning your hummingbird feeder is an important step to prevent bees from swarming it. This simple, routine maintenance takes very little time but ensures that there will be fewer unwanted guests at your hummingbird feeder.

Move the feeder around

In natural environments hummingbird are attracted to densely growing flowers. Once they find a cluster of flowers they will search nearby to find more.

Insects are inclined to search out convenient food sources but are less likely to search for relocated feeders.

Moving your hummingbird feeder a few feet around the garden plays on this natural behaviour. It will also discourage insects from swarming the same location without affecting the hummingbird’s natural tendency to search the immediate area for additional food.

This simple strategy is especially effective in gardens with several hummingbird feeders.

Keep the feeder in the shade

Most insect pollinators operate in full sunshine because that is where the greatest number of flowers bloom. They instinctively search for brightly lit areas to feed.

Keeping your feeder in partially shaded areas makes them less attractive to bees and other insects without affecting hummingbirds. It is important to pick a partially shaded spot because a spot without any light will fail to attract hummingbirds.

An added benefit of the shade is that it keeps the feeder out of the direct heat of the sun. This serves two purposes. First, it slows how quickly the nectar will spoil. Second, it preserves the life of the feeder itself because it is less exposed to the elements.

Bees are attracted to the color yellow

Avoiding the color yellow on feeders you put out deters bees from crashing the party. Bees are naturally drawn to yellow flowers so not using this color makes them less likely to compete directly with hummingbirds.

If your feeder does have yellow parts, you can still use it. Either paint over those parts with non-toxic paint or remove those parts entirely. Many feeders have come with customizable components, not using the yellow ones will help keep bees from your hummingbird feeder.

Dilute the nectar solution

Bees are attracted to highly concentrated, sugary substances. They follow their nose and gravitate towards the most concentrated sources of sugar available to them.

Using a diluted sugar solution in your hummingbird feeder makes it less attractive to bees. An additional feeder with a highly concentrated sugar solution placed in full sun will attract the bees and draw them away from the feeder meant for hummingbirds.

Plant a pollinator garden

Bees are prolific pollinators and happily spend their days collecting pollen from blooming flowers.

Adding a pollinator garden with a wide variety of bright flowers will draw their attention away from a hummingbird feeder. A pollinator garden has the added benefits of feeding hummingbirds and attracting other pollinators like butterflies.

Following these strategies is an effective way to keep bees away from your hummingbird feeder.

Focusing on the natural behaviour of hummingbirds and bees allows you to create environments that naturally attract or deter each species.

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How to keep bees away from your hummingbird feeder