The Trouble With Hummingbirds

[Prof. Kent]

Notice the furrowed brow and beady little eye. A definite sign of a malignant, cunning mind.

You may have as difficult of a time believing this as I did at first. Hummingbirds are a scourge in my orchard. Not to apples, but to grapes. I had about 5 gallons of grapes to be picked this week. When I went out to pick them not a one was left. This is the third year in a row... each year the grapes would have been a larger harvest than the year before. I thought the first year I had gotten to the grapes too late and they had fallen off the vine because I checked for them in October when Concords ripen. These are Candice and Reliance, seedless grapes, and I now know they ripen in early September. This year they may have ripened at the end of August. All the grapes are gone. The bunches (stems) are still hanging. No sign of turkeys this year so I was thinking squirrels, chipmunks and/or mice. Then my wife tells me that hummingbirds were swarming around the grapevine (We have Ruby-throated HBs around here). Looking closer I find on the ground the empty, dried up skins of the grapes, which you wouldn't expect to find if small rodents picked them. Rodents would carry the entire grape away. Fallen grapes attract fruit flies... which upon a little research I found out is a favorite food of HBs. They get their needed protein from small insects. We all know HBs like fresh grapejuice. Makes sense. High in sugar, thin skins, easy to get to. People feed HB's grapejuice and grape jelly. The trouble is hummingbirds are too cute to shoot.
Nuts. I guess I need to plant more grapevines.

- Kent

[Chip Kent]

I had a very similar problem this year.  My grapes ripened way earlier than I was expecting so I wasn't out there checking them.  I expected bad things when my wife told me about all the cute birds she saw playing in the shade of our grape vines.  Once I got in to check the grapes, the birds had taken about 60+% of the crop.  While harvesting, I noticed that the wasps and a few bumble bees also took a large fraction of the harvest.  I think the problem was accentuated this year because of the drought.  The birds and bugs were eating the grapes just to get water.

Chip

[Kent Eddy]

Maybe the hummingbirds ("cute birds playing the shade"...lol) are usually migrated by now. I wonder if supplying a sugar-water substitute feeder would encourage them to leave the grapes alone. Wasps and hornets...I know how to take care of them!

[John and Annette Trout]

I'd tell you to shoot them, but that just doesn't sound right.

[Kent Eddy]

Hard to hit the little suckers, too!
Oops.

[John and Annette Trout]

I've seen preying (praying?)mantises waiting for them at the feeder.  That's a nice earth friendly control.

[Jim Hossack]

Tennis Racket - beg muh pard!