I wandered over here in a quest to find more info on plants that hummers like, and ended up reading this thread. I hadn't heard of the HummZinger, I'm going to have to investigate that! What I do have that I love is a feeder by Dr. JB's Hummingbird Feeders. It snaps together with just 3 pieces, and is totally dishwasher safe (top rack, of course). Its very durable, and the birds seem to be really happy with it. It doesn't really drip, either, and you can buy replacement parts if one of the pieces breaks (especially the top glass jar part). I am probably going to invest in another feeder, but I might have to invest in some flowers that the hummers will appreciate too. I am sure that there is the capacity to have quite a lot of little hummers around here, but I need to do more to attract them to the area first. There is nothing as cool as having hummers swirling all around. Here is a link that might be useful: Dr. JB's Hummingbird Feeders

The resident population here also ignored a new Hummzinger for two months, but once one adult female figured it out, the others learned from her. It's become a useful feeder, so I've changed about it, but I don't think any single brand of feeder is the best thing to have during migration if it's the only one in the yard. The birds passing through are apparently accustomed to different designs of feeders or have no experience with feeders at all. I've watched new arrivals pecking at different parts of the feeders, including the hanging chains, ant traps, bottles, and bottoms. When they hang back and observe other hummingbirds, they figure it out in just a minute. However, if there are no other hummers around, they fly off. Although someone has suggested not giving hummingbirds a choice between a Hummzinger and others, I think doing just the opposite is the best strategy if you want them to stop in and stay a while. Peoples' priorities differ: easy vs. laborious for human or easy vs. laborious for bird.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize this was a discussion about organic vs. non-organic foods. Well, it is and it isn't. :-) I'm using "organic" as an oversimplified term to mean "locally-produced foods which are grown sustainably and processed minimally". I'm aware that there are many producers who do most of that and who have not undertaken organic certification. They're OK in my book. The beef I have (pardon the pun) is with people who think they're driving the cost of their food way down by buying pork that is injected with up to 15% of its weight with water, salt, and preservatives; buying eggs from hens kept in cages so small they can't move and fed a diet that no chicken would ever select for itself; farmers who use synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides to combat monocultural farming; and all of the corporate agricultural subsidies -- paying farmers to not grow crops; subsidizing the cost of transportation by keeping gas cheap and taking the cost of fighting wars off the books; and charging all of us road taxes to repair the damage done by trucking produce halfway across the country and the environmental damage done by runoff from manure pools and insecticides and by top-soil erosion. There are costs associated with all of that, but conventional farmers typically don't pay them. We all do. I do not strictly purchase organic, whole grain type foods. I purchase the best I can with my monthly food budget and go from there. I understand that if you live with such high standards, you probably can't prepare lunches for $1-2 each. What I don't understand is this: where are you able to eat lunch out for $4 and eat purely organic? I couldn't go anywhere in my town and spend $4 and eat to your standards. It just isn't possible. I don't always eat organic. If I'm invited to a friend's birthday party, I won't refuse to attend because they don't buy organic. It is, however, a strong preference of mine (and it's what I feed my guests). It is cheaper to bring organic from home. Beans and rice or some soups and stews can be relatively inexpensive organic meals. I would be hard-pressed to eat out organically for $4, though my food co-op comes close with a mix-and-match hot-food bar for $6. My point (apparently not made very well) is that many people on the Internet claim to make a meal that costs only a couple of bucks. Well, if that's done by purchasing heavily-processed non-sustainably-produced food that is grown, gathered, and sold by people half a country (or half a world) away who don't make a living wage, then someone else (actually, everyone else) is picking up the associated costs. I don't consider a slice or two of "baloney" on Wunder Bread and a banana a balanced, healthful meal, even if they don't come much cheaper than that. It's ironic that the most-heavily-processed food available in the U.S. is often the very cheapest. The "boutique" aspect of organic food aside (I won't deny it exists), organic food costs what food should cost. I don't look upon it as "such high standards" so much as I consider it the standard. If you were to add in the costs of trucking food halfway across the country, providing working wages and basic health and educational coverage to the people growing and harvesting the crops, and the costs of epidemic high blood pressure and diabetes brought on by the heavily-processed American diet and lifestyle, people wouldn't be saying, "I can make a full meal for $1 or $2." It really costs us more than that.

LOLOLOL...The squirrels have been horrible for me too in area I didn't think to put repellant....They are eating strange things..Mines sit on my fence eating my Lilac leaves and the other day my Roses, stems and all? Did they come from another planet planted by aliens this year? Just NUTS...lol Thank God mine don't touch my Citrus, although one did get stuck in my greenhouse and chomped on my Orchid bulbs...Then drowned in the pond in there...