Becky Griffin, community and school garden coordinator with the Georgia Center for Urban Agriculture and the UGA Cooperative Extension, spoke with Southern Living about ways to keep bees away from hummingbird feeders.
“Bees are attracted to your hummingbird feeder because the sugar water in the feeder is similar to the nectar that bees look for in flowers,” Griffin said. “Sometimes bees may be at your feeder because there are few nectar sources in your area.”
It helps to plant bee-friendly flowers in gardens, such as mountain mint, butterfly weed and bee balm.
“The thought is that the nectar of flowers is much more desirable to bees than the sugar water in the feeders,” Griffin said.
Other tips include placing the feeder some distance from flower gardens, using saucer-type hummingbird feeders or feeders with bee guards, avoiding feeders with yellow components, hanging multiple hummingbird feeders, cleaning the feeder and changing the nectar regularly.
