I also use the Hummzinger. They know how to use it, but just seem to prefer the flowers.

Last year, I bought a feeder at the store that was made of green glass, and shaped like a pear with a hole at the bottom. There was a black rubber stopper stuck in the bottom of the glass pear. The stopper had a hole in its center, and an angled glass tube was inserted into this hole and hung downward. The end of the glass tube had a collar of red plastic. It was cute looking, but what a terrible feeder! The vacuum inside the glass receptacle prevented the solution from travelling down the tube, and the tube was so long that it would take millions of years of hummingbird evolution to find a bird that would evolve a bill shape to use it. Their bill would have to be curved upward, like a godwit or something!

Anyway, I got so disgusted with this that I decided to make my own feeder. I got a small glass liquor bottle (maybe 4 oz or so) and found a red rubber stopper at Wild Birds Unlimited. The stopper fit perfectly into the opening of the bottle and had a hole in the center that was meant to receive a bent glass tube. Instead of using the tube, I made a flower out of Sculpey clay (or is it, Sculpy?) and poked a skinny hole in the center of the flower with a bamboo skewer that seemed the right size. The sculpey clay itself is supposed to be non-toxic, and I glued it to the red rubber stopper with epoxy. The epoxy is on the outside, and never touches the solution. Finally, I found some very fine gold wire and fashioned a sort of harness to hold the bottle. The bottle hangs diagonally downward at an angle of maybe 45 degrees, or a bit less. The ants I have trouble with are great big carpenter ants (man, can they bite!) and they are too large and clumsy to climb down my very slender gold jeweller's wire. I don't know if it would work with tiny ants, but I haven't seen a single ant on the feeder, so it seems to be working.

The feeder is small enough that the nectar gets used up quickly, so I seldom have to worry about nectar going sour. When I do clean it, I just pop off the stopper/flower and toss it, and the bottle into a pot of boiling water. Easy!

To be sure, there are more elegant feeders to be found, but the hummers seem very comfortable with it. The sugar solution stays up in the bottle, and the bumblebees that have visited it seem to have trouble reaching the solution, so don't linger. The hummingbirds, with their longer bills, have no trouble at all, and just probe deeply inside to get at the sugar water. My fake sculpey flower looks kind of like a cardinal climber flower, and I guess it's convincing enough that the hummers have no trouble seeing it as a possible food source.

I have 6 saucer style feeders and three bottle feeders. Each feeder seems to have its own hummers that prefer that particular feeder. I have one hummer that prefers the First Nature bottle feeders, A couple that prefer the Perky Pet pinch waist feeder with the large flowers and one little female that preferes the saucers. They will use one anothers feeders if there is something or someone too close to there favorite feeder.

Penny

I have used the Hummzinger mini for years. I have three of them on our property and the hummingbirds have never seemed confused about using it but they DO prefer the flowers to the homemade nectar. I always have B & B salvia or Lady in Red planted by my feeders. They seem to enjoy the flowers first and then fly up for a sip or two of the nectar.

I hated my saucer type feeder. It never snapped together properly.
I prefer the perky 32 oz feeders. I go thru a gallon of solution during the height of the summer and they are easy to fill and maintain.

I have the hummzinger. Like others the hummers prefer the flowers first but have fed at the hummzinger. However, I had a fancy, schmancy feeder that went ignored.

The hummers have been feeding on bleeding hearts and my borage.

This is the first year I've been successful at attracting them. I hung a red plastic bag. Seemed to do the trick.

with feeders do the yellow attrect bees and wasps or dose it not

I'm with Flowerchild59 on this one, I to hate the saucer type feeders, They are easy to spill and I always seem to spill mine before I get outside. I to like my glass bottle type feeders, easy to clean and fill and easy to maintain. I have used them for years and by mid summer I have 60 plus birds using my feeders and go through gals of juice. In fact my saucer type feeder is laying in the laundry room not being used now because i spilt it in the middle of the kitchen floor the first time I filled it right after I purchased the dang thang, besides it would be probably empty 30 minutes after I filled it.

For any one inquiring, hummzinger feeders are the most desirable and recommended by specialists and experts. I have tried all feeders, Perky Pet by far being the worst. In fact, Perky Pet feeders are so difficult to clean (that is if you are cleaning them correctly) that they can even be harmful to your hummers. I would never recommend that brand.

But today we have the great hummzinger (saucer-style) designs that are so easy to clean and maintain that hummingbird feeding can be both enjoyable, easy and no mess. Most important, with hummzingers they are so easy to open and clean that you will have no fear that your birds are safe drinking from them!

Another great option for the health of your hummers, and for you for ease of cleaning, are the new designs by Best 1 and by Dr. JB. If you do prefer the cylinder shaped feeders (vertical) these are the best two brands and are made of the proper materials that will last you a lifetime. Like the hummzingers, they are also easy to clean keeping your babies totally safe!

Remember, when choosing a feeder the most important two things to consider will be the safety of your birds and the ability for you to maintain their safety through a clean feeder.

Perky Pet gets the lowest marks in history for poor feeders, and frankly, through experience, I have come to realize they are not safe for the hummers.
They do not come apart, and therefore, proper cleaning is just about impossible because you cannot open them and see what you are cleaning!

Enjoy those beautiful little, and brainy, creatures!

I use quite a mix of feeders I have one hummzinger excel and I also have the old first nature 16oz and use one large perky pet feeder. Plus I also still use those cute one port feeders that walmart use to sell for $.97 but now are not too be found and certainly not for that price, but I stray.

The hummers use all feeders but are favored toward the first nature bottle type. Maybe part of the reason for this is I believe I have a number of returnees and thats what they know.

This year first nature put out a couple of new styles which are nothing more than novelty items but I have them to try out on the hummers to see if they like them or reject them.

Also in reference to the member who mentioned the birds couldnt seem to find the port, I suggest that they were either young birds or possibly were picking off knats or other flying insects.

I was having a big problem with bees on my feeders (my backyard looks out over a desert, and since I've had a hummingbird here all winter I kept my feeders up, and there wasn't anything blooming yet for the bees to go to). I finally broke down (after trying literally *all* the tricks to keep the bees away) and bough a Hummzinger. I also have a cheap ($3.99 I think) First Nature Feeder from Walmart and a smallish pinched waist Perky Pet feeder.

The hummingbirds don't seem to care for the hummzinger at all! I'm so disappointed, since it cost twice what the other feeders did (combined!). As someone on another thread wrote, if you keep your solution low enough in a saucer style feeder the bees can't get to it- and after I did that the bees left my cheapie First Nature feeder alone.

It does seem that my hummingbirds like the ones with the red flowers the best (I had a larger Perky Pet one, but a woodpecker finally broke it, and they really enjoyed that one).

The perky pet feeder is kind of a pain to clean, especially the larger ones. It seems that mold would grow exactly where the brush couldn't quite angle to reach.

Granted the perky pet feeders can be hard to clean especially the large pp209 glass feeder that I use . If mold builds I soak it in a solution of bleach and water at a 1-10 ratio, then rinse it well .

The old first nature 16oz cylinder types are very easy to clean as the base also comes apart and the base could be compared to a saucer style feeder. Then I use a bottle brush or sponge for cleaning the bottle.

I have concerns about the design of the new 16oz first nature as to whether the hummers will use it , time will tell.

I have used bottle types for years and just recently introduced the hummzinger style and the hummers had no problems adjusting to it.