[Bobjones]

We had a nice warm day down here in TX, and the bees were all over the chicken feeders.

Had the same issue last year, the chickens won't go near their feeders. I've got 3 'flocks' so multiple feeders for each group. The feeders inside a 'darker' coop didn't have bees, but any out in the open did.

My question originally was going to be any recommendations on keeping the bees out of the chicken feeders. But as I'm typing this, I have an idea. Tomorrow (it's supposed to rain tonight), I'm going to take an open pan & put chicken feed 'dust' into it. I'm going to put that up higher above other feeders. The bees should prefer being higher and a big flat pan with smaller particles should be more attractive as well. I'll post how that goes.

But since I've already typed this, anyone else have any other suggestions? For all the comedians, I've already tried small 'no trespassing, that means YOU bees' with the picture-warning to no effect.

I assumed that they were going after the sorghum seeds in the chicken scratch, so I put out sugar water, molasses, etc. They weren't interested in the sweets at all. Now I know.🤔

 

[roseywilly]

They are all over this stuff.
Literally rolling around in the granules.

 

[Michael Bush]

There is no pollen available. They are gathering the dust as pollen.

 

[Tigger19687]

For the life of me I can't remember why bees do this, there IS something in there they like, not just gathering dust as pollen.
It was in my chicken forum when I had hens a few years ago.
But there IS a reason they do it

 

[username00101]

The bees get into some bizarre things on warm winter days, when temps are much warmer than normal.

 

[JWPalmer]

Of course there is reason they do it. Protein.

 

[Tigger19687]

Of course there is reason they do it. Protein.

Funny you posted this, I was just over at my Chicken site and looked it up. Yes the protein in the feed.
Some feeds are higher protein then others.

 

[Gray Goose]

A question on behavior.

I put out some pollen today & was watching them. Quite a few bees were standing there, an inch or 3 from the pollen, abdomen high in the air & pulsating. No wing beating (so not trying to aerate the scent?). Just pulsating abdomen. Out and in, over and over.

It seemed to be behavior to put a homing scent in the air to find the pollen, but I would have expected lots of wing fanning to accompany that. What was I seeing?

The only thing really missing were a bunch of drones singing "I like big b*tts and I cannot lie"...

when they are "pulsating" they are warming up, internal shivering, they need like 85 degree internal temp to fly, as well flying cools them so they often need to rewarm when they land.

GG

 

[username00101]

Seen them in 16%, and they zero in on chicken feed like it's pollen substitute.

Saw dust on the other hand.....💪

 

[vicyclefive]

The bees are not actually eating the chicken feed or grains, but collecting pollen, minerals, dust and yeast.

 

[vicyclefive]

Honey bees feed on flower nectar, which they take back to their hive and transfer into honeycomb. This nectar is evaporated into honey, and once honey they cover it with a wax lid. This honey is the bees only source of carbohydrates in the winter after the flowers have died.

 

[LAlldredge]

Feed them what they are looking for. UltraBee dry pollen sub in open feeding. This shouldn’t set off any robbing. My setup is as basic as it gets. Paper grocery bag with a large U cut out the top and laid on the ground near the hives with a layer of UltraBee. Wildly entertaining. Placed out in February and used as a door stop the rest of the year.

 

[Tigger19687]

Honey bees feed on flower nectar, which they take back to their hive and transfer into honeycomb. This nectar is evaporated into honey, and once honey they cover it with a wax lid. This honey is the bees only source of carbohydrates in the winter after the flowers have died.

🤦‍♂️

 

[JWPalmer]

My eyesight is not so good. That is a figure of someone slapping their forehead?

 

[Tigger19687]

My eyesight is not so good. That is a figure of someone slapping their forehead?

Yes

 

[Michael Bush]

I've only seen them do it in a pollen dearth. In fact that is one of the symptoms of a pollen dearth which leads me to feeding pollen.