Just responded to your hummer vid and was going to ask if your feeder had arrived. How many other feeders are near the hummzinger? What draws them to certain feeders, I have no idea. I bet given a little time, every port will be occupied! BTW, I like the First Nature from Walmart...not as sturdy as the PPs, but easy to clean.

There's definitely a "learning curve" for hummers that are used to gravity feeders when they switch to basin feeders...they'll get the hang of it in a week or so. At least I hope so! =)

They'll get it eventually. I still keep a couple drippers around too, though, for variety, but mostly because last year I had a female that would lap up every drop that was hanging on the bottom of the feeder. Have yet to see one do it this year.

They just would not use it at the window so I made an early move and swapped it with the first feeder you see in this series of photos. I had quite an influx of hummers today couldnt have happened at a better time to learn this feeder.

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after making the swap on the sheperds hook this is the first young guy to make the plunge
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then after fighting everyone off for awhile allowed this
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then finally this
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nice pics! quite a lot of birds!

My Hummers(most of them anyway)prefer the cheap Walmart feeder(which always attracts bees and ants)but they have all accepted the Humzingers which I now use exclusively. When it comes to cleaning them there is no comparison. I put the Hummzingers into the top of my dishwasher about once every 4th or 5th time I use them--they dishwash well.

Hooray for success, Steve! I hope it continues and the investment is worth it for you.

By the way, I'm envious...still can't get my hummers to share a feeder...grrr!

Late this evening I grabbed this shot thru the window, not the best a little fuzzy but you get the idea. At least they are starting to use it. I was afraid they had totally rejected this feeder.

Sure didn't take long, did it???!!! Wish my hummers would share as nicely as yours. Plenty of feeders are up and they are still battling it out. You must have given them lessons on feeder etiquette!

Donna

Donna

You are so funny "you must have given them lessons on feeder etiquette".

Steve

I ordered 3 HummZinger feeders and they should be here any day. Right now I only have two feeders but I have 3 customers right now. I have a small female, an adult female, and a adult male. I was so excited to see the male hummer as I've only had one in past years.

Only one bird eats out of my Perky Pet feeder and the other two eat from my Wal-Mart feeder.

I had a female the other night sit at the feeder for a couple of minutes. She was drinking so much I could actually see the air bubbles popping at the top! She must've been hungry.

Vicki

I dont really have an ant problem here , just wasps. I hang a wasp trap on a sheperds hook, started in early april and maybe I captured some queens for my wasp population is down from last year. I have had to weed out some feeders such as the PP rose petals which leaked out the ports and attracted more wasps, those are going to my sister. The PP 209s are ok and the first nature feeders are also fine. The mini feeders from walmart are so well liked by the hummers as viewed on my other post[where did they all come from] that I will keep those even though wasps are attracted to those. Last summer if you went out around that tree there would be a dozen or so wasps flare out from it at you, like I said earlier the pop. is way down this year.

Steve, My Hummzinger arrived but it didn't have guards. Did you purchase the guards? Are the guards used to keep the ants out?

Monica

Im sorry to say I have some bad news. Not all of the hummzingers will accept the nectar guards. The guards advertise they keep out wasps and bees and if they have an ant port ok. After talking with Nottawa who I ordered from I find that the tips wont fit on the excel and some of the smaller ones. But will work on most of the 12oz ones. Needless to say Im sending mine back. For after only 24 hrs mine was full of nat size flying insects although the hummers had nearly drained it. Since the tips wont work on mine with all the critters getting in Im not happy. Ive pretty much had my run with HZ. I will ponder it for a couple of days, but I ordered the bigger size since I needed it for my activity. They have the droll happy eight but the rep told me it sorta leans a bit when its low of liquid. Too bad I believe the hummers went for it too.

I have a bad ant problem with mine. I bought two of the fancy fuschia and one ultra. I'm sure the tips won't work on the fancy fuschia ones. Good thing I only hung one of the Hummzinger's up. I guess I'll have to see what happens and I may have to return mine as well.

I'll order the tips for the ultra.

Sorry to hear about the Hummzinger not working out for you. Your Hummingbirds sure liked it.

All Hummzingers have a moat to keep ants out. Just keep it filled with water and you shouldn't have any problem. My Audubon/Woodlink feeder has a moat just like the HZ and I've never seen an ant anywhere near it... and it's even hanging from a tree that has an ant colony living in it.

Steve, sorry to hear you're not happy with the Hummzinger. Even when the nectar guards do fit, I don't use mine--the hummers take a while to get used to them, and I don't mind a little bug soup. One last thing for you to consider: the level of insects in my feeders is down to virtually nothing now, even without the insect guards. My only guess as to why this is (I used to have plenty) is that the hummers are eating them. Which I think is win-win. =)

The trade-off is that even though tiny insects can get in, bees and wasps can't, and don't really try (at least for me). And those tiny bugs just drown anyway; the hummers don't mind. But to each his or her own!...thanks for giving it a try, Steve!...sorry it didn't work out too well.

Steve-I agree with mbuckmaster--the tiny little insects that get into mine are bugs the Hummers eat anyway. Since I change my feeders so often none of it goes bad because of the little gnats. I have the nectar guards and I do not like them so I do not use them. As of late I have not seen the tiny gnats in mine anyway.

I only see a gnat in my nectar once or twice a week. It probably helps that I only put 2 oz of nectar in my 8 oz feeder so it is only a cm deep and remains well below the feeding ports. Of course, only partially filling the HZ is not an option for Steve.

Ok I have tried the HZ and it didnt work for me, the holes in the excel are simply too big, way bigger than my PP209 which I get no bugs in ever, to use the excel I would need the guards and it really wouldnt benefit me to use a smaller size. There is a larger size called the happy 8-2 but the rep I talked said that feeder sorta leans to one side when it gets low. No offense to all you dedicated HZ lovers, but all this HZ hoopla has left me a little flat. It just doesnt work for everyone. I will just continue with what I have been doing, it seems to work.

Hey Steve! I am just happy for you to continue to do what you do. It certainly makes happy Hummers for you!
I am thrilled to have correspondence on here with wonderful people that love the Hummingbirds as much as I do. I learn very much from all-and you are one of my favorites because of your dedication and knowledge and commitment to the birds.
I love the Hummzingers ---but you please keep doing all do for the little gems with what works for you!!!!!

I just might reconsider and try the excel again as has been said the hummers adapted to it . Plus the fact the bees might not bother it and even if the knats get in as you'all say that might not be a bad thing.

A tip I got a few years ago, was to hang the feeder using a bent clothes hangar, and then use Vaseline to coat the wire. That keeps ants from crawling in. Also, I hang it in a "free hanging" position - in other words, not within a shrub, vine, or tree, or abutting any other structure where the ants can crawl in from any other place except from the clothes wire hanger. In this fashion, the ants get stopped in their tracks, literally, and can't get to the feeder itself.

Close by, I hang my rotten fruit feeder for the butterflies, and most of the fruit flies are attracted to it and not to the hummer feeder. It's close enough that it provides an easy diet for the birds, but far enough away that the knats choose the fruit feeder over the sugar water.

I've got to check out this Hummzinger feeder!

Susan

Susan, please don't use Vaseline near hummingbird feeders. It's a petroleum-based product that can get into hummer's wings and seriously hamper their ability to fly; perhaps even kill them over time because it doesn't wash off easily.

The Hummzinger feeder has a built-in ant moat, and you can also buy ant moats to add to hanging feeders that will prevent ants from getting to the nectar. It won't prevent gnats or other small flying insects from getting in, but since hummers eat those too it all works out for the best!

Depends on what kind of ants you have. Over at my mothers place she has those large black ants and I tried to grease the bottom of a pole with vaseline on which I hung a feeder and those big guys were laughing at me as they crawled over the vaseline to get to where they wanted. The thing that did work at least for while was tying some of those drying sheets around the bottom of the pole, home rememdy.