Ken

Glad you had such a nice stay at the inn. Did you bring it to the managers attention about the feeders? Im no expert but I think what happens in that case is the hummers just go elsewhere to find food. Did you notice any hummers at the dirty feeders. That would alarm me more than anything.

I hate to admit it but there was a time when I knew nothing about feeders or how to care for them, a full blown idiot in that regard. I would fill a feeder never change it if it wasnt emptied, add red dye, leave it up all winter long among other things, all no nos in the hummer world. So now I tend to cut a little slack to people who arent aware or who dont care or believe. Every once in a while when Im out I get an opportunity to help someone when asked. Such was the case just recently when a woman noticed me looking at feeders and asked me a couple of questions and the conversation went on for about 20minutes and I feel sure that I helped and enlightened this person without being overbearing.

I hadn't a clue when I hung up my first feeder either. Now that we're seasoned veterans, we do tend to judge rather quickly; like a relatively close neighbor, who we really don't talk to alot. She sees me outside all the time, gardening or whatever, and just so happened to be passing while I was putting out a new feeder. She asked if I really have hummers, and I said oh yeah, quite a few. She wanted to know why she doesn't get any at her feeder. I asked her if she cleaned it out and replaced the sugar water and she said no, that she doesn't have time for that. I almost started lecturing her about how nasty her sugar water was and it's a good thing the hummers stay away from her garden, but I didn't want to go there and just told her if she wanted hummers, she needed to clean up her act.

I think the hummers are smart enough to stay away. They seem to be ptetty smart when it comes to their nectar sources. I hope. My boss puts a feeder out but can't figure out why she has no hummers. She claims to have lots of nectar favorites, but she has landscapers and I bet a paycheck that they apply pesticides for her, since she's always whining about this and that destroying her shrubs or plants. I think the hummers are smart enough to stay away. Again, I hope. She also grows milkweed to raise monarch cats, and also can't figure out why she gets no eggs or caterpillars...grrrrrrrrrrrrr...