I have never purchased a butterfly feeder but have had a few species on my hummingbird feeders. I guess they work well in an enclosed area like those used in conservatories. Butterflies out in the wild have a large variety of plants to nectar from so the only time I see them on the hummingbird feeders is when nothing is in bloom and it is terribly hot. Now if you want to attract the brush foots you can mix up a batch of butterfly brew and dab that on an old fence post or tree branch or make your own hanging feeders using a section of log with some grooves cut in it so the brew has a place to pool. ~Cat

aprille - a hummer not accustomed to a certain feeder needs time to figure out how it works. The same happens with juveniles, who are known to peck at anything that they think is food including my red bag that I use to attract them or an ant moat or even flowers not normally recommended as hummer favorites. You have to be patient. Sometimes all that needs to happen is to have one hummer who is familiar with how it works and the others watch and eventually figure it out themselves (and then the feeder wars begin! LOL). Also - they do have long tongues that can reach down into the saucer - usually because their beaks can also go down through the port some distance. But you want to make sure that the solution doesn't go down too low.

I agree with that totally. There were definitely a lot of hummingbirds here before we put up feeders, every summer. It was because we were seeing so many, but never up close, that we got the feeders. No doubt they would be fine without them, but in trade for coming close enough for us to see them, I'm happy to maintain/fill the feeders. There are where I want to see hummingbirds, and for the first time this year, they are coming "inside" the porch to visit the tiny flowers on potted plants. They've always visited Coleus blooms out in the yard, but never on the front porch while I was sitting there. Wish I knew what they were saying when they stop in mid-air a few feet away, looking directly at me, chittering up a storm. I've also added a lot of Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' to porch pots this summer, can't say enough about how much they like these flowers! My neighbor a few doors down has a large patch of Zinnias and at any particular moment, there's several flitting around that, sometimes a lot more. If any Lantanas are hardy where you are (or you are into buying them as annuals,) that's what has always attracted them around our yard, even years ago before I started getting rid of grass and adding any other plants.

Oh my, who would have thunk!! ... a chicken feeder!!! (my DH gave most of our away when we quit raising chickens some yrs ago)! Isn't that just the cutest! & if you don't like the metal look (which I do), you could spray paint it! Looks great w/her painted blue island! I can see this on a serving table at a picnic, too! TFS, PM. Jeanne S. Love those roosting nests in her pic, too...I have this pic saved in my "future projects" folder that was on GJ forum some yrs back (you may have shared it, I don't remember)...it's so cool!