Rory,
I'd heard of other beekeepers noticing bees foraging their bird feeders
but hadn't noticed anything myself until we started keeping chickens.
We feed a ground corn mash and have a range feeder outside the coop that
the bees foraged from last year (until the chickens began to forage on
the bees.. ).  We moved the chicken food,  gave the bees their own
source of chicken mash (and added some higher protein soy flour to it)
closer to the hives, and all the girls were happy.
Kathy
 
 
Rory Stenerson wrote: Greetings,
 
> I'm witnessing something kinda new for me.  For the last couple of
> days
> It's been quite mild here in central Pennsylvania (50-55F) and today
> my bees are
> concentrating their on our back yard bird feeder.  It's a Droll Yankee
> model with
> another feeder hanging below it.  Both feeders have black oil
> sunflower seeds and
> cracked corn.
>
> The bees are working it like they've found a new source of nectar or
> pollen.
> Any ideas what they're getting from this?  I thought the only thing
> bees worked
> was water, pollen, nectar, and tree resins (for propolice).<snip>