Dani a Follower left a comment in my first post on Hummingbirds that she has feeders but to no avail they leak and can you make bird feeders leak proof ?
Well Dani ...3 years ago when we started putting out a variety of Feeders ..We ended up running into the same issue. We even had the issue that the hummers just wouldn't feed from some of the ones we put out ...it was as though they favored others.
Sad to say but we bought some of the Beautiful Blown glass styles and our hummers wouldn't feed from them ..So we retired them and kept out the ones we saw the hummers frequenting more.
As of leaking yes we had our share of leaking and I found out that this is a common problem. Not that any of the feeders are faulty ..but it's all science ! Which I will explain in just a moment.
The two feeders below are the ones we use currently ...the lighthouse is my favorite and we picked it up a couple years ago at the Armstrong Garden Center.
Then the second one ..is decorative ..and the design works well ..I believe we picked this one up at lowes a few years back ..for whatever reason ..our little hummers really prefer these 2 ..and let me tell you we had about 10 before we got down to these 2.
Now as for leaking it's all about the sun the heat and pressure.
It's always best to fill your feeder brimming full ...to start with so no trapped air gets inside and pressurizes the fluid to begin leaking.
Also if like me you keep your feeders ..out in an unshaded spot ..Well the sun beats down on them ..and air pressure builds up in the feeder and they begin to leak.
Here's a couple sites that may explain it better than me for you
or
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Also Choosing the Right feeder for the amount of birds your get is important too
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Well ...I hope this helps Dani in your quest to feed the hummingbirds ...and anyone else who may be facing the same issure or have faced it and given up.
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Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers - a living prismatic gem.... it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description. ~W.H. Hudson, Green Mansions
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Your Kindred Friend ..Sara
thanks so much for the explanation...
ReplyDeleteI will try again! Let you know how it goes...
My husband found a feeder I had no luck with working right...and through your instructions (thanks so much) we were able to get it from leaking.....and its hanging in our tree now, waiting for the first hummer......
ReplyDeleteI think you must not be too far from us...we live in Menifee