I keep honeybees in various bee yards in the upper valley. Many folks like to hang sugar syrup feeders to attract hummingbirds this time of year and throughout the summer, which also attract honeybees.
Please consider planting nectar producing flowering plants instead. Today’s beet sugar is not yesterday’s cane sugar. Sugar beets are genetically modified to withstand being sprayed multiple times in the growing cycle with glyphosate, aka RoundUp. Glyphosate lingers in soils, plants, and the beings that consume them. It’s a mineral chelator, drawing essential minerals out of the plants, and the beings that consume the plant products, leading to various complications and diminishing chances of survival.
It doesn’t take much glyphosate to compromise tiny creatures. Bee Balm, Russian Sage, Butterfly Bush, and hundreds of other plants can provide hummingbirds, honeybees, and other pollinators with nutritionally rich biologically appropriate food. An online search will reveal many more suggestions to keep flowers blooming all season long. In place of your hummingbird feeder, you may want to hang a mesh bag, like an onion sack, with melon rinds and banana peels in it to foster fruit flies, which are a great source of protein for hummingbirds to feed to their hatchlings.
Rorie Woods, beekeeper
Hadley