ctcarol for the acorn...

I feel she will quickly get used to you coming & going from that door Linda and as you say; she chose to build the nest there.

My females are here, there are only two, I think.

Finally saw one, it was on the black and blue salvia like above. Ive had lots of butterflies but it was a long wait this spring for a hummer.
That hummer nest is just awesome. I hope to find one in the yard one day.

Those are incredibly beautiful photos, Sherri!

quietyard said:Those are incredibly beautiful photos, Sherri!

My Sister hung a feeder and was plagued with wasps/hornets. She took it down and the hungry insects left. I'll suggest that she plant something to attract the hummers.

Beautiful photos, indeed!!!

All my hummingbirds have left. I might see 1 or 2 during the following months, but it will be a rarity. The hummers come here from Fall to early Spring. Seems strange since other parts of Florida get them now through summer. And some parts of Florida have different birds coming and going year round, so they always have hummers (though not always the same ones).

That does seem strange, Becky.

Paul if your sister doesn't mind killing wasps, tell her to get some of that spray that shoots out a long stream of the spray, and armed with that, check her eaves and the tops of her windows around her house. The wasps are actively building their nests right now, and they need the nectar for energy. Spraying soapy water on the nests works, too. They won't start gathering insects and caterpillars until the baby grubs are born. Discouraging them from building their nests is the best way to keep them out of your yard.
It's amazing how many different wasps eat nectar for their sustenance.
I've grown hummer plants for years now along with putting out feeders. I've only found one plant that they prefer over a feeder. That's cypress vine, the one with the very narrow, ferns leaves. Be careful with this one, an annual vine, it re seeds readily and can become invasive. It's ridiculously easy to grow.



It comes in pink, red and white flowers. The Hummers like the red the best. As you can see from one of the pics, butterflies like them, too!

Thanks for complements everyone, they're speedy little things to catch a good picture.


These gals don't stay here all summer, in fact they usually show up much earlier, but then I've never seen males here, and the one this winter hung around for a couple months, not sure if that's why I didn't see the females earlier or not. I do get at least two females here for several months Fall through late Spring, not sure if they're the same two or not. Like you @Beckygardener, it is very rare to see one during the summer months, although I have a photo of one on an Aloe bloom in mid August a couple years ago. Some harsh winters their favorite plants can take a hit from a freeze also.
I do read they will stay all year long in S. FL though.

I get both sexes and they stay about the same time. Sometimes a female gets here first, sometimes a male. But I think that overall, it's a bigger number of females that get here first.

Paul2032 said:My Sister hung a feeder and was plagued with wasps/hornets. She took it down and the hungry insects left. I'll suggest that she plant something to attract the hummers.

A couple of tips that were shared with me seemed to discourage the wasps and yellow jackets. I moved mine to the shade and changed the type of feeders to Hummzingers. It has worked. Finally wore out one feeder and need to order another. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CSH7VA/

Thanks Lynda and Kristi. I will share the info with my Sister.

I agree that the Hummzingers don't seem to be so attractive to the wasps, bees or other such creatures. I've also found that any feeders with yellow flowers will attract them (bees and wasps). Get one that's just red, the color that is attractive to hummingbirds.

One spring I hung the first feeder with yellow flowers and this is what happened.

Are those native honeybees or the ones from Europe?

At the end of hummer season I remove the bee Garuda from my feeder and let the honeybees have at it. I refill it for them. I've never been stung doing this. Been doing it for around 10 years now. Christine, the feeder in your pic looks exactly what my feeder looks like in mid to late fall. When it's empty, I just reach out and gently and slowly brush the bees off the feeder. I take it inside, fill it up and hang it back outside. Sometimes the bees are still buzzing around as if they are waiting on me to bring it back filled!

Hamwild, those are honey bees. I think all honey bees are from Europe because none of the native bees make honey.

How neat, Lynda. I usually only see the honey bees early in the spring. They must visit native flowers the rest of the time. Or I will see them if it's hot and dry in the summer when they will take over the dog's water bowls.

What a wealth of information here.I had too go out and check my feeders and see if we had red or yellow flowers,both are red.

Yes, all honeybees are of European origin. But after centuries of living here, and remember honeybees arrived with the earliest folks that came here from Europe, many have escaped and become wild.
I have many beekeeper friends, and they are members of the local beekeeper association. Its a large group; we have a lot of beekeepers here. Every spring the association gets many calls from homeowners, businesses, etc to come and get swarms from trees, under the eaves of buildings, etc. When the swarm isn't located anywhere near established hives, they're usually assumed wild bees. One of my best friends told me that when her bees swarmed, the swarm never went very far from the hive they swarmed from. She had located her hives near a grove of trees so she could gather the swarms and put them into a new hive.
She started out with one hive and bees she ordered online, but by the time she gave up beekeeping she had 9 hives, and 8 of them were from swarms from the original hive.
I'm sure Asa will have more information to add to this. I'm not really sure how far a swarm from an established hive will travel.