Mockingbirds will quickly learn how to capture slower-flying laden foragers returning to the hive, swooping back and forth across the entrance.  We put up some scrap tree netting on bamboo poles on either side of the hives to create a safer "ILS Approach" for foragers, but the birds will slow down or stop their voracious feeding as soon as they are done raising their latest chicks.

Another approach in a rural setting is to disc or roto-till up a 1/4 acre or so, and create a bigger, better bugfest for the birds featuring slow-moving bugs that don't fly.

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