Yes, pesticides and a particular mite appear to be the main culprit for bees, although there are other factors as well. Bees do best fed honey, but have also done well for generations with some sugar water supplementation when flowers were scarce. With all the other issues making life difficult for them, it makes sense that honey vs. sugar water could make a significant difference for them.
As for hummers, they certainly survive without being fed, but it does seem-at least in areas of the world where flowers with significant nectar are somewhat scarce-that you end up with a larger population if you make feed available each season. I'm not aware of any research or evidence to indicate sugar water (sucrose) supplementation hurts them, and anecdotal evidence seems to suggest otherwise. That said, I would expect flower nectar is best for them. They still go to flowers for nectar when a feeder is available (they show up at the feeder mostly in morning and evening when less flowers are open). And they keep scooping up small insects. They're fun to watch, and the more insect eaters around the better (no spray around here). Last year we found we had to put the cat's food away between meals to avoid feeding our yellow jacket wasp explosion (picture cat food dish crawling with 10-15 yellow jackets from dawn to dusk). The dogs would grab their hunks of fish and run, hoping to avoid the yellow jackets' company during their meal :) When unsuccessful at that, they spent more time growling and snapping at the yellow jackets than eating their food. From: moxaman [mailto:bbane...@earthlink.net] Sent: Mon, May. 26, 2014 07:27 To: silver-list@eskimo.com; silver-list@eskimo.com Subject: Re: CS>CS in hummingbird nectar? What is killing bees are the neonicotinoids, a type of pesticide patented by Bayer. From: Jane MacRoss <mailto:highfie...@internode.on.net> Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2014 4:21 PM To: silver-list@eskimo.com <mailto:silver-list@eskimo.com> Subject: Re: CS>CS in hummingbird nectar? I never feed wild birds, I observe them at the flowers - still out here in late May, hovering under them for nectar - and others darting along the verandah removing the insects & spiders, and then some help themselves to dog food left in the bowl on the verandah overnight - I hear the 'ping' on the bowl of their beaks .... the parrots take the fruit and the kookaburras ... make enough noise but I don't know what they find here .... I would have thought humming birds would not have needed man manufactured sugar - isn't that what's killing the bees? Jane Subject: Re: CS>CS in hummingbird nectar? Their water containers in the wild are flowers, and pooled dew drops and other fresh bits of moisture that evaporate, rather than culture mold from sugar water going 'off'. L On May 25, 2014, at 2:55 PM, Alan Faulkner wrote:
