Hi everyone I am new to the forum and while I grew up with hummingbird feeders, I am having a big problem with one I recently bought on Ebay. Although it is beautiful, I cannot seem to figure out how it works. I'm sure it's something simple and hoping someone with more knowledge than me can help.

It seems like a simple design- you pour the water in and seal it. However, the three flowers all have a little yellow plug that plugs into the center of the flower. Now, left as it, I see no way for the birdies to get to the nectar. If I unplug the plastic, the nectar starts pouring out. Am I supposed to cut the end? Pierce it somehow in the center. I have no idea.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sabrina

Hey Sabrina and welcome to the forum. From the sound of it you probably do have to remove those plugs. If you remove them after you hang it, do they leak alot? Hang out, maybe someone else has seen this feeder, I never have.

Pam NJ 6B

Hi Pam and thank you. I tried pulling out the plugs but all the nectar starts pouring out- really fast. Update- after it had been sitting for a few hours, I opened the tubes again and they are not leaking as fast so I hung it outside. It was still having a drop fall from the bottom every 15 seconds or so. I am wondering if it will stop after it becomes completely still or if I've done something wrong as far as unplugging the flower tubes, etc.

Sabrina

Sabrina. Try this: make your nectar of sugar and water then only fill it to the level just below where the tubes are, remove the plugs. The hummers tongues are quite long and should go into the liquid, but you might have to refil often as the level gets lower. It really is a beautiful feeder.

Karen
Southern California

For this feeder to work when it is filled to the top, it must be airtight. Sounds like air might be getting in somewhere and destroying the vacuum, causing it to leak.

Karen has suggested a good way of getting around that by filling it only part way. Doing it that way, you don't have to worry about air getting in because you won't be depending on the vacuum to keep the liquid from coming out. The disadvantage with that method is you'll have to change the nectar frequently to keep it at the right level (as high as you can without leakage).

If you want to fill it all the way, make sure you pour the nectar in all the way to the top and make sure that the stopper on the top is pushed in as firmly as you can and that it is sealing well. If air gets in around the stopper, or somewhere else, it'll be glug, glug, glug! It's a pretty feeder, so I hope you can get it to work. You also might experiment with opening only one port at a time and see if that controls the leaking. Maybe there is a faulty port which you could somehow seal or fix, or just keep closed.

These kind of feeders that depend on vacuum to seal will most likely leak some but if it only leaks a drop every now and then that may be the best you can hope for unless you do as Karen suggested and fill it below the feeding ports. And welcome to the forum.

Steve
Martinsville, In
Heat zone 6
Sunset zone 35

Hi Sabroma.
I have no suggestions for you as I have never seen a feeder like this one but I just want to say welcome to the forum. This is a very smart bunch so I am sure that you will find that one if not all their suggestions will be useful.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Thanks so much everyone for your help. After listening to everyones suggestions, I removed the stems and hung it again. I think it has all but stopped leaking. I'm not sure what happened the first time. Maybe air was in there or something of the sorts. But, I am so happy to report that we've had one little hummingbird that came to visit many many times yesterday - and another that tried to visit but was chased away.

And so, I'm very happy. I loved the feeder and glad the birdies like it as well. Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm really enjoying reading all the posts.

Sabrina

Sabrina, do you have any more photos of your feeder? I'd love to see the glass better. It looks like it's textured, or maybe has air bubbles in the glass? Looks pretty in the photo, but not quite sure what I'm seeing.

That's great news that it's working better now, and fabulous news that the hummingbirds are using it already.

Thanks again for all the help. I am very happy to report that even with a little leaking her and there, I have hummingbirds at this feeder constantly. I had another one before but no where near the response. I pulled out my camera for a short while today and went outside hoping to catch one- I caught quite a bit of hummingbird love! I'm shocked at how fast they are coming around now. I put some photos in a slideshow. If anyone has any idea of what type of birds these are, please let me know. I'm very new to this but so anxious to learn.

Hummingbird love,
Sabrina

Here is a link to the slideshow- sorry the embedded url didn't work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK24cihtMX8

I don't know if anyone else can see it, but all I get is a grey square with a little red X. And its not clickable. you may have to try to put it into the post differently. If you have a link for it, just include that.
Don

Don
Coventry, Ct zone 5/6

Same here--gray box and little red "x" in the corner.

So pleased the feeder is working so well for you, and leaking minimally. I'd love to get a better look at that glass. It looks like it has air bubbles in it. I can't wait to see those pictures when you get the technical difficulties worked out.

Did a Yahoo search and came up with this:

"red x boxes mean you have not got java enabled...have you tried tools/internet/options/advanced tab ---restore defaults--click button or if does not do the trick look in security --custom level---scroll down the list and see if the java enable box is ticked."

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Cheers,Bob
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6a
Lexington,Ky.
It's Summer!

Or, as a one time solution, you could email me the pictures as attachments and I could post them from photobucket. Of course, you'd still want to figure out why the box with the "x," so you could post future pictures successfully. However, I don't at all mind posting a picture or two (or 3 or 4! )

Sorry guys. I didn't realize it wasn't working. I'll just post the link to the slideshow. Hope this works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK24cihtMX8

Sabrina

That link works and your show it great!

-
Cheers,Bob
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6a
Lexington,Ky.
It's Summer!

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Cheers,Bob
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6a
Lexington,Ky.
It's Summer!

Sabrina
That was great! Thanks for sharing.

Penny
Niagara Falls, NY
USDA zone 6a/6b
Heat zone 4
Sunset zone 39

Thanks so much for persevering and sharing--nice slideshow! Now I can see a little better what the glass in that feeder looks like. I don't think I've ever seen one with glass like that--cool! So great to see the hummingbirds using it and the music with the slideshow is a bonus, too.

That was a great slideshow. Really pretty feeder, too!

Carol

Carol R
Tennessee
USDA Hardiness Zone 7
Heat Zone 7