View Full Version : humming bird food
i have some bags of humming food i was wondering if it would be good as a food for my bees. it is a good nectar source for the birds so i was thinking it would be good for the bees and thay would convert it to honey instead of syurp. i think it might be as cheap as sugar too. what do you all think?
Hambone
05-22-2009, 09:44 PM
Mix it up an put it in the hummingbird feeders. If the bees want it. They will come get it. I believe it cost a lot more than sugar too.
dsquared
05-22-2009, 09:48 PM
Bees don't convert sugar syrup into honey. Honey is from plant nectar. They will store sugar syrup, dehydrate it and cap it, but it is not honey, does not taste like honey, and in fact, people have been prosecuted for trying to pass it off as honey. Sugar syrup is used to stimulate brood rearing, help packages draw out comb, and attempt to get colonies light on stores ready for winter.
Ben Brewcat
05-23-2009, 09:12 AM
I'd be surprised if it's anywhere near as cheap as sugar (or why would they go to the expense of packaging and marketing it as hummer food). Sugar can be found for under $.50 a pound. Hummer food also typically has dyes in it even though you don't need it to attract hummers.
Note also that the syrup for hummers is typically 1:4 whereas bee syrup is mixed to 1:1 to 1:2.
even if it is more expensive, if it is better for the bees it might be a temp. supplement thing. i was just thinking that humming birds are in the flowers for the same reason bees are. but on the other hand thay arnt usaly seen in the same flower patch are thay? maby because the bird can get to nectar the bees wont even be able to reach, or maby because it is a species of flower that is no good to the bee? it sells at walmart for 50cent per bag and a bag makes 2 & 1/2 quarts i think.
BuzzinBerries
05-23-2009, 07:01 PM
Last year in late August my neighbors had their hummingbird feeders drained in one day by a bunch of honeybees. They refilled them and had them drained again the next day by the honeybees. This went on for several days. This year hubby planted a bunch of sunflowers to bloom about that same time of year to keep the girls out of everyone's hummingbird feeders and keep the neighbors neighborly.
bomber410
05-26-2009, 03:28 PM
I make a sugar water mixture for hummingbirds at a 4 to 1 ratio. For bees it's more like a 1 to 1 ratio. My guess is the packaged hummingbird food is too weak for bees. What I now do though is make my bee syrup and pull a cup of the syrup to then water down for hummingbirds.