What are they after?

[cmonkey]

I keep seeing a dozen or so of my girls at my birdfeeder. It's just wild bird seed, not sweetened or anything, but they keep coming back. Color of the seeds, maybe? They're finding pollen somewhere, so I'm curious as to why they're spending so much time at a dead-end feeder when there's willow to be worked.

Funny little things, them.

[Live Oak]

They are hungry for pollen. They are scavenging the seed processing dust and bits in the seed mix. My bees did the same thing with our chicken feeders. I put out some pollen substitute and they immediately started taking it back to the hives. They would consume about 3 lbs. a day until natural blooms started providing real pollen and then they stopped taking it. I would suggest you put out some sugar syrup feeders as well and see if they will take that too.

[cmonkey]

I do need to check and see if they've polished off the megabee I gave them. It's supposed to be warm enough tomorrow, so I'll pop the top and drop some in. I know they've found some pollen because I saw a few with full baskets, but it's still in pretty short supply.

Thanks!

[smith]

Its a pollen substitute. We have hanging tube bird feeders and they empty them out in a day. They just kick the seeds out and then collect the dust. You'll see them have grey pollen baskets. If you fill the feeders with cracked corn its even more pronounced. Its pretty funny to watch. They get so thick even the birds stay away. Hopefully real pollen will kick in soon.

[Rick 1456]

I kept finding Millet seed at the entrance of one hive,,,, It was early in the Spring. You are saying dust,,,,I found seeds
Amazing

[Tia]

That happened to me this spring, just like Smith said. They kept kicking all the seed out of the feeders. . .went all over my flower bed, so I'll be weeding like crazy this year! Tried to feed them megabee with honey, but they ignored it, preferring the bird seed dust! I was very relieved when after three days of this mess the red maples started blooming and they abandoned the bird feeders!

[Live Oak]

When the girls are scavenging for pollen like that, I set out a chicken feeder and sprinkle in about a 1/2 lb. of pollen substitute at a time. They come to the chicken feeders anyway and readily find it and take it back to the hive. Just be sure to bring it inside at night so the dew and moisture doesn't harden it up.