If there's plenty of nectar available the honey bees usually won't touch sugar water. When we set up a new hive from a swarm we provide them with sugar syrup to tide them over until they get things set up to suit them in the hive. Last year we had one hive that seemed to be lazy about gathering their own nectar. All the others set up at the same time were busy bringing in pollen and nectar but that one kept drinking the sugar water. This year we don't have any doing that.
Charleen was worried about the hummingbirds not getting any syrup because the bees covered it. So I told her to try giving them some sugar syrup away from the feeder. She tried a quart jar with a chicken waterer lid on it first and got worried she had drowned them and fixed the one in the picture. She reported yesterday that the bees still go the the hummingbird feeder when they run out in their's but are starting to visit flowers again. Her only problem is with ants and I told her to use cinnamon sprinkled around the base of the stand as they are said to not like cinnamon. Jan told her to also coat the bottom of the stand with Vaseline.
