SourwoodGrace · North Carolina, US · Beginners · Aug 25, 2026

Bees are hammering my neighbor's hummingbird feeder — how do I call them off?

Third year, four hives in the North Carolina piedmont, and we're in that ugly gap before goldenrod really opens. My neighbor (lovely woman, endless patience) texted me a photo of her hummingbird feeder absolutely covered in my bees. Dozens of them, hummingbirds can't get near it. I know it's the dearth talking — that feeder is basically an open bucket of 1:4 syrup from a bee's point of view. But what actually works to redirect them? I offered to buy her a new feeder. Do the bee-guard port things actually work? Should I be feeding my own hives in-hive to take the edge off, or does that just make more robbers? I really don't want this to become a neighbor problem.

#dearth#robbing#neighbors#feeding

▲ 6 votes 💬 3 replies ✅ Solved

3 replies

AbejaMiguel · Aug 25, 2026 · ✅ Accepted answer

This exact situation every August in Jalisco. Three fixes that work together: (1) a saucer-style feeder with bee guards — nectar sits below where a bee's tongue can reach, genuinely bee-proof unlike the cheap ports; (2) stop drips and wash spills off the outside, drips are what recruit scouts; (3) move it a few meters — birds re-find it in hours, bees take longer. In-hive feeding won't call them off a known source, but do it anyway if your hives are light. And never open-feed to 'distract' them; that makes it ten times worse.

TexasBeeSam · Aug 26, 2026

Seconding the saucer feeder — fixed the same problem for my mother-in-law in one day. And +1 to never open feeding. I did that my second year in Texas and started a robbing frenzy that killed a nuc. The bees will drop the feeder on their own the moment goldenrod opens anyway.

SourwoodGrace · Aug 26, 2026

Bought her a saucer-style feeder with the built-in guards this evening and washed the old drips off her porch rail myself. She's delighted, I'm relieved, and AbejaMiguel you probably just saved a friendship. Will feed my light hive internally regardless.

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