For the last several summers we had so many hummingbirds at our feeder that we had to refill it at least once a day. There were so many it was impossible to count them without taking a picture. Here’s one from a few years ago when we had two feeders out.
An even dozen?
I think there are 12 but I’m not sure. I am sure that there are at least 11. I numbered them but it’s hard to see. The questionable twelfth is at the center (labeled 12?). I think I see a tail sticking out from behind No. 11. We used to have the feeders suspended from a post on the deck railing. We had to put the rocks that you can see in the foreground on the deck railing to discourage cats from poaching birds.
Here’s a couple of closer shots.
Two hummers
A single hummer
At first this year it looked like we would have a lot of hummers again. And then they seemed to disappear. We put out a full feeder and it went down so slowly we had to dump about half of the sugar water after two weeks. We seem to get one or two at a time now. Where have they all gone? We don’t know.
For those of you with a good hummer population who are plagued with yellowjackets hogging the feeder, we found a solution. This is what our feeder looked like a few years ago towards the end of the summer. There was no way the hummers could feed.
Yellowjackets hogging the feeder
We read online about yellowjacket traps with bait suspended over water, but it turned out that a simple bowl of water with a drop or two of detergent attracted them.
Drowned yellowjackets
These are all suicides. I assume they were attracted to the odor of the detergent, and when they lit at the edge they fell in. The detergent “wets” them and they sink beneath the surface of the water, where they drown. We had to dump the bowls at least once a day for a while before the yellowjacket population was reduced sufficiently that the hummingbirds could feed.
Update: I don’t know where the hummers went, but, wherever it was, they came back. We are just now seeing a fair number, and the feeder level is dropping nearly as quickly as in the good old days.
I’m glad your hummers have returned in the numbers you expect. I’ve noticed this year that we are feeding fewer hummers. There was a time last summer when I was making a quart a day, but now I make a quart every three days. It may have something to do with one or two males scaring off all the other birds. They pick a perch on the feeder and won’t let anyone else eats. It goes on for days. I just hope they all figure out and learn how to share. LOL!
Just last night we looked out to the feeder and there was a flock of them so big we couldn’t count them. Of course they scattered when I went out to take a picture.