[Rick 1456]

I think I know the answer to this but thought I'd share on the outside chance something else is goin on. Girls are on some source as they are coming in with distended abs. A lot of them coming in, have very noticeably red abdomens. Not lipstick red, but more like cherry juice red. I'm suspecting they have found one of my neighbors humming bird feeders with the red dye
Hummmmm, Might make some neat little Christmas tree ornaments,,,,,maybe low voltage LEDS

Rick SoMd

 

[Ethfol]

:applause::lpf::applause::lpf:
That's hilarious! I think the colour would fade though, too bad.

 

[beehugger]

That's funny. The instructor of my Beekeeping class said he had been given some bulk hummingbird syrup and fed it to his bees. He was shocked to discover he ended up with a bunch of pink honey. He was saying it was such a waste because no one would want to buy pink honey. I told him to slap a pink ribbon symbol on it and it would sell like crazy.

(I realize now he may have been joking about selling it because I know you can't call sugar syrup honey.)

 

[Rick 1456]

I too had some "pink" honey from the same thing. I told everyone that honey came from "Barbie and Kens " hives

Rick

 

[Joseph Clemens]

In the Autumn of dearth years I usually see a little bit of pink honey from humming bird food. One year there was a much larger amount and it was much darker red, I discovered that it was the juice from prickly pear fruit, the bees would harvest it after the birds pecked the fruit open. It appeared to be toxic to larva - when the bees were harvesting it, queen cell royal jelly was a vivid pink and none of the larva fed with this jelly would grow to maturity.

 

[Omie]

It's not recommended to put red food dye in hummingbird feeder syrup. Everyone used to do it, and it used to be sold that way. Supposedly the red color of the syrup would attract the hummingbirds because it mimicked the color of flowers. They now say the dye is not healthy for the birds to consume in such large amounts. Plus, it was shown that just as many h.birds came to the uncolored syrup as the dyed bright red syrup feeders, once they discovered the feeder. We humans sure love to inflict our brilliant ideas and unnatural commercial concoctions on wild creatures.
Best to not add red dye to hummingbird feeders. Tell your neighbors it's better for the hummingbirds to not consume food dye. Maybe then we won't get pink honey. What goes around comes around.

 

[Rick 1456]

Hey Omie
Same here. I got rid of all the red stuff couple years ago. I actually see more h birds now. I use the 1:1 for the bees and birds. It's funny,,,I have seen the h birds hover at the entrance to the hives on several occasions. Wonder what that's about:scratch:

Rick SoMd