We've lived here for 21 years and have only seen the occasional hummingbird fly through the yard. When we moved here we put our feeders out because we had all kinds of Hummingbirds in Colorado. But we no sooner had them out about 2 days and the ants found them in droves! So we took them down and didn't put them back up.

However, one of my friends and neighbors inspired me!

I saw a humming bird perched on a tiny branch outside my kitchen window the other day. I thought about hanging my feeder, but didn't. Then I saw a video he posted on Facebook of a humming bird at his feeder. Yvonne saw it too and told me about it. So we decided that if we have that much humming bird activity in our neighborhood we need to put out our feeders too! So this afternoon I put up a bird feeder hanger I had laying around, and hung my first humming bird feeder from it. Yvonne prepared the sugar solution. Now we wait and see what happens. Next we just have to figure out where to hang the second feeder we have.

I suggest an ant moat if you find them crawling down to your feeder.

Hamwild, I'm interested, what is an ant moat? And where would I put it? The feeder is hanging from a metal arm that extends at about a 45 degree angle from the corner post.

GardensJohn said:Hamwild, I'm interested, what is an ant moat? And where would I put it? The feeder is hanging from a metal arm that extends at about a 45 degree angle from the corner post.

You put water in it and it keeps the ants from being able to get down to your feeder.

It has two hooks, one on top of the moat and one on the bottom. The top hangs from your metal arm and the bottom one holds your feeder.

I have this one from Lowes:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Red-A...

Do I need it for sure or only if I begin seeing ant activity?

GardensJohn said:Do I need it for sure or only if I begin seeing ant activity?

You can wait to buy one if you want, I'd imagine! You may be lucky and never get ants.

You're in VA right? I imagine they'll be moving down South for the winter in another month or so, so you can always wait until next Spring too, I'd imagine, to get one.

Thanks for the response. I will get one. I already have ants in my yard! Several different kinds, so I'm not going to wait.

GardensJohn said:Thanks for the response. I will get one. I already have ants in my yard! Several different kinds, so I'm not going to wait.

Same here! I had no idea so many different ants existed until we bought our house.

I end up filling up the ant moat daily, but that may be because some of the small birds like to drink out of it.

I don't mind ants, except when they invade my living space. Then they have to go! I've been fighting with a colony of Carpenter Ants that have invaded an oak tree on my property! I've already sprayed two whole cans of Terro Carpenter Ant spray into the hole in the tree and all around the tree. Those things are huge! The ants that is, not the cans of spray! Those are things horror movies and nightmares are made of.

TY for the ant moat info! I've never seen it before. I need that, ants are why I gave up on hummer feeders. It's not changing the solution daily that bothered me, but having to rinse outside while I was getting mosquito bites because there were too many ants on feeders to bring inside.

Hamwild, thanks for the suggestion. Went to Home Depot first, but they didn't have the ant moat. Then popped over to Lowe's and sure enough, they had it. Installed it as soon as I got home.

I'm glad you found one!

I was looking at hummingbird feeders online and ant moats and some feeders have a built-in moat. Saw some glass feeders too instead of the plastic ones I've had before. The glass is probably easier to clean and should not cloud-up as easily. I will attempt to buy one this weekend but may end up having to order.

I put my hummingbird feeder out a couple of days ago and yesterday, at Hamwild's suggestion, added an ant moat to it. This morning, one of the first things I wanted to do was check and see if a hummingbird was at the feeder. When I checked it, lo and behold there was a little hummingbird sitting on my new feeder having breakfast! Unfortunately, by the time I grabbed my phone to take a picture he was gone. But, at least he found the feeder! That makes me think he will probably be back! Hopefully, he will bring his friends. Maybe I'll put out our other feeder too!

I bought a cheap plastic feeder from walmart a couple years ago. The ports are easy to clean, as is the rest of the feeder and it has held up well!

Yay, John! Keep trying to get a pic. I haven't gotten a hummer pic since I think 2013 but I've seen a few flitting by and visiting some of my plants.

Agree they are easy but the clear part ended up looking cloudy after a couple of years. I think the feeder part on the glass ones is plastic, which seems like a good combo to me.

Yea, the ones I have are plastic on the red part and the clear part is a very thick glass. I've had them for a long time! Work great! I put them up once since I've lived here in Virginia and got ants really bad in them and took them down. Never saw many hummers anyway and thought there just weren't that many in my area. I usually see one that flies through on his/her way up north in the spring but that's all. This year I saw that one, but just a few weeks ago saw another one actually sit on a little branch of my dogwood tree, right outside the kitchen window where I was eating breakfast. Then a neighbor, who has a hummingbird feeder out videoed a hummingbird flying around it. That did it for me. Out came my feeder. And this morning there was a little hummer having breakfast!

So far, mine haven't clouded at all. Maybe it depends on the amount of sunlight they get?

Could be. I was scrubbing them too.

That's awesome, John!