Have the bees taken over your jelly feeders, making it hard and kind of scary for the orioles to eat? This happens every year around late July and I would like to share with you one solution to keeping the bees off the feeder and out of the grape jelly – cloves! Apparently, bees hate the smell of cloves!

I read about this two years ago when the bees became relentless at my oriole feeders. Put whole cloves and or ground cloves (I use both) on or around your feeder, but not in the jelly. See the second photo to see how I spread out the cloves and ground cloves on the feeder. Once I did this the bees dispersed, making dining much more enjoyable for the orioles! By the way, I was able to place the whole cloves in the nectar ports because I am not currently filling the oriole feeders with sugar water.

If you try this at your feeders, or if you have a different solution to keeping bees out of the jelly, please let us know. We love bees, but they can truly be a bit scary when they swarm around the feeder – for the birds and us!