Your feeders are adorable Cat!

I've been admiring your feeders for some time now. Wonderful work and I love that you are recycling too. Would you mind disclosing the source for the stoppers and flowers that you use on the insulin bottles? I found a site that used recycled bottles with nothing at all in them and claimed that the birds used them. Have you tried that? Thank you for sharing your photos. They are wonderful and inspirational too.
Regards,
spiderwoman

Thanks Catwhiskas and Spiderwoman.

The yellow flower stoppers are from Perky Pet and sold as replacement parts (9 for $2.99). The red stoppers were taken off of Opus Gem Series feeders (Lowe's had those discounted because a plastic bottle on one set was cracked and the others were mismatched - I got 4 feeders with a total of 16 stoppers for only $2.00!!!)

As you can tell by the garden stake in the above photo the hummies have no problem sipping nectar from a dish.

I also tried using candle cups (filled with nectar) hung from marble suncatchers as in the photo below - but because they are wide open - they are susceptible to all kinds of critters. The bees, wasps and ants had a field day with those...so I stopped using them.

{{gwi:990804}}

The hummies also sipped nectar from some red glass candle cups I have (didn't take a photo of those)...but the insects were equally attracted to them as well.

~ Cat

Cat, You make eating sooooo much fun for the little hummies!

Yes like dining at a fine resturant. My feeders are just the Plane Jane type. I don't think that I have an artistic bone in my body.

I made an ant moat once out of a red plastic aerosol can cap...LOL I'm not very clever at building stuff.
incredible design and execution, cat, thanks for the pics.

penny used to make and sell saucer feeders, but I think she has a parts manufacturing snafu and they aren't available now. here's a pic of one:

Cat--Thank you for the information on the stoppers. Do you think there is any reason that one could not fashion a stopper and flower drinking port from polymer clay? It is a completely inert material once it is cured. Thanks,
spiderwoman

Standard - I like that saucer type feeder. I recall seeing something very similar but it had colored beads hanging from the ends of the strings. I could never find the saucers at a reasonable price to have a go at it myself :o)

Spiderwoman,

I'd say a stopper/flower drinking port could be made out of polymer clay...but I'm not that skilled to try it :o)

Am not sure if there is shrinkage when it dries...and that would cause leakage. A Garden Junk forum member posted photographs where she covered little bottles with polymer clay...and mentioned she was going to try making the flower feeder ports too.

The plastic feeder replacement parts have a slight indentation near the base of the flower and the 'stem' has a groove cut into it - so when it is pushed into the bottle neck it expands slightly to form a perfect fit. I've included a photo - it's easier to show than explain :o)

~ Cat

didn't someone post here a while ago that the first time they saw a hummingbird was when their grandmother put out thimbles full of sugar water? I thought that was so cool.

Here's another hummie feeder I made out of a small test tube. Took the hummies only four minutes to find it.

~ Cat

Love that newest creation of yours Cat!

Isn't it cool? :-D You know Cat - forgot to mention that I have one of those single-flower feeder balls like those that are in your very first photo that are arranged in a tree. And it wasn't until about 2 weeks ago when one of my juvie male hummies finally figured it out! LOL

Jenny,

Yes...those are single flower garden stake hummie feeder balls. I'd made a deal with WalMart to buy their left over supply a couple of winters ago. Had the idea of the hummie-port in my mind and was waiting for the opportunity to buy lots of those cheap!

I don't use that 'hummie-port' during the summer as there are only about a dozen regular hummies here now. Also I just can't keep the ants from crawling up the wood post. In addition, the feeder holes on those plastic flowers are the perfect size for a bee to get it's big butt stuck in - so I had lots of dead bees clogging them up!

I had put it out in the yard a couple of weeks ago to try to get some photos - had filled only six flowers but it rained and the water got into the upright holes. I didn't feel like lugging it to the backporch so I just turned the flowers downward to let them completely drain.

I saw a hummie a few days ago trying to get up under the flower to check it out :o) Cute...but I wasn't fast enough with the camera.

Maybe I'll set it up again and try to photos during the fall migration.

~ Cat

Hi Cat,
I really like your feeders. I too have a test tube feeder. Unlike your feeder, the hummers are not visiting mine. But, I really enjoy all the pics others have posted.

What about the small coffee stir sticks. They do have very small holes. Some even have 2 with a divider between each tube. Would those be too large? One stick can be cut into about 4 pieces. I may try one. I'll let everyone know if it works.