Help!!! Bees are swarming around a hummingbird feeder

on my back patio. How do I get rid of them so the hummingbirds can feed. The recent freeze has killed off most of the flowering shrubs.

I am in Michigan and it is about 10 degrees right now. Maybe you could try this site, though. Good luck. Hummingbirds are one of my favorites.

http://birding.about.com/od/attracthummers/ht/beesaway.htm

There was quite a swarm forming - like 25 or 30 with more moving in, too. Kinda scary

Just don't go out of your way to provoke them.

on the other side of the yard....

Don't know if that will work, but I reckon it's worth a try.

that attatch over the sipper holes.

the bees are hungry too - you can try adding more feeders or changing positions

ETA: they won't hurt the hummers, but they WILL consume a fair amount of liquid.

to draw the bees off. The rock is to give them somewhere to crawl out and dry if they fall in. Works for us.
:hi:

the usual solution on the gulf coast is to add more feeders, i do not know why, but the bees and wasps often crowd to one feeder and leave others for the hummers

i sometimes have yellow jackets but with multiple feeders i still have plenty of hummers and have even had some rare winter hummers such as calliope

The deep dished flying saucer type is best. Bees have very short tongues relative to hummers. So if the bees can't reach the liquid, they'll quickly give up.

Second, what is your recipe for the food? If it's too sweet, that will attract bees. The recommended combo is one part white granulated sugar to four parts water. Don't use honey or any other additives. Hummers use nectar/sugar water as a high energy pick-me-up. They are, in fact, insectivores.

Finally, try placing a shallow container (those short tongues) of sugar water, 1 to 3 ratio, away from the feeder. It may attract the bees and keep them away from it. Remember, we need the bees as pollinators.

get another feeder with bee guards to solve my problem.

Tried the vegetable oil around feeding holes, sugar water elsewhere etc. The guards solved it.

I couldn't lick the problem...tried moving it, spraying ant killer around the area where it hooked to the tree/house/whatever. Nothing worked UNTIL I saw a show on India. The resident of the house left a tiny container of food outside their homes for the ants and other critters as sort of an offering. I thought...well, why not try it. So I saw where the ants were coming from and interupted their path with a small container of sugar water. That distracted them and many drowned in it. Don't know 'why' it worked (why they didn't go for both the feeder and the little dish I put out), but they seemed happy with the arrangement as did the hummingbirds.