Ungrateful welfare class.

[Thumbcocker]

Here at the Thumbcocker compound we believe in giving a hand up to those down on their luck. Generally this is a good thing. But, sometimes, things go wrong. The hand up becomes an entitlement. A way of life if you will.

It all began in 4th grade. Our science book talked about "Nature's tiny helicopters" complete with photos and glowing prose about how they migrate great distances. I was enthralled.

With fond memories of 4th grade science, and the very best of intentions we put up feeders here at the compound. Help the little guys along on their migration route. We also have a mimosa tree in the yard.

What hath we wrought? Despite multiple feeders the recipients of our largess fight among themselves to the point that often no one gets to use the feeders.

There's more. When the feeders run low I top them off with a squeeze bottle of nectar. Fair enough. But to be engaged in refilling the feeder and having one or more of the little ill tempered miscreants hovering at arms length glaring at me while I do it is well just a little unnerving. Chalk it up to my watching "The Deadly Mantis" at an impressionable age but I get to wondering. Fukushima radiation, mutations, angry turkey sized nectar suckers, me being held captive and forced to constantly refill 55 gallon drum sized feeders. Scary.

Just look at the expression on the face of the nectar swilling little sucker. Is he thankful? NO! He is sucking down nectar like it is his birthright. I guess I will lay in the bed I have made.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210702/8bd270c497c71e2310bedc385e3bd86e.jpg

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[Rcmaveric]

The older i get the more i find myself mumbling to myself "Little ********".

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[badguybuster]

When we looked at our farm the owners told us about how much enjoyment they got.out of watching hummingbirds....I told my wife "I didnt care about the birds", now Im the one sitting on the porch every evening and warching them. They are hostile little suckers!!!

[foesgth]

My wife cooks up the drugs (nectar). She went to visit the grand kids without cooking up a new batch. I couldn't fill the feeders!!!! The dog an I just hid in the house and hoped we wouldn't get Tippi Hedrened.

[buckwheatpaul]

We go through at least 150 pounds of sugar per season.....when the feeders get empty....they hover at the back door and stare into the house.....they are worth it though.....

[Winger Ed.]

We have a few that live here, and we're on their migration path also.

They are a hoot to watch at the feeder. And if you go out wearing a red hat,
they'll come right up to you and hover around, checking out that really big flower.

We always have one or two that are very aggressive towards the other 'hummers'.
We call them "The Bully Birds".

[Handloader109]

We've had a bunch last 3 years, but they kept going this year. We had a late cold snap and I guess went on further north. Had a pair last year that were awful. meanest little things ever. but fun to watch.

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[iomskp]

We do not have them in my part of the world I'm a little jealous, but we do have lots that get quite vocal if I don't put the food out on time and they show very little gratitude.

[BJK]

I think there is a human corollary in this message. At least I see it in the folks at the nations teat.

[abunaitoo]

We don't have hummingbirds here.
But I do have a feeder out back.
I like to feed the Doves.
Morning and afternoon.
Do I think they appreciate it????
Probably more than people on welfare here.
I feed birds, cats, ducks, but nothing for the homeless anymore.

[bedbugbilly]

We feed the hummingbirds when we are in AZ - amazing how many show up for a free handout, especially at dusk.

Lots to be learned by nature whether it be birds or humans . . . the more you give, the more that is expected. Funny though . . . if you weren't there for the free dole . . . they would have to depend on their own efforts to eat and survive. I'm talking about the birds . . . or am I?

[John Guedry]

We had 2 or 3 hummers last year but this year NONE.

[kbstenberg]

Most years we have multiple nesting pairs. But this year only 2 pair came back. In a computer check a lot of birds (not only hummers) have died in their wintering areas. Our Bluebirds are non existent this year. An our Balt. Or. left when the summer heat arrived.

[elk hunter]

I guess we have 3 to 5 of them hanging out during a normal year. This year so far we've only seen one. If there is more than one they do fight. They think they're eagles.

[waksupi]

The Rufus hummingbirds are pushy little buggers. When I still fed them I have four varieties using the feeders, but when ol' Ruf came around, he wasn't sharing with NO ONE!

[Cosmic_Charlie]

We have weeds that get orange flowers later in the summer. The humming birds really like them. We noticed our cat would sit under one and catch the humming birds. Must be like potato chips for him or something.

[MrWolf]

We have two that hang around. Had one of them fly into my garage last year. That was fun getting him out. Hard to see them at first, but ours make a distinctive vrmmmmm sound when speeding past. Sorry for the technical jargon but hey:groner:

[Dunross]

Now I want to watch "The Deadly Mantis" again, but I no longer have a VHS player to put my tape in!

[trebor44]

Hummers are very intelligent and all varieties of the species are territorial. Some more so than others. They will wait while you refill the feeders and are curious. Had them fly into the house and garage looking for 'food'. While they like the sugar water, they do consume a lot of the smaller bugs.

[444ttd]

i have 3 - 7 mating pairs here, this year i only have 3 pair. down our country lane, everybody has welfare sugar/water feeders!!!!! about half of the country folks also include bird/squirrel feeders(mostly squirrel). last year the hummers were fighting(shock!!!!!![smilie=l:) quite alot and they ended up on my walk. hummer 1 was pinned down by hummer 2 bill. i thought that hummer 1 was dead( if you ever find one dead, DO NOT take it to it your taxidermist!!!!! i know now). anyway, i walk up to them frowning and they fly away.

this year, the hummers beat the baltimore oriole by a week(BO - 9 / hummer - 1).

[Electrod47]

Every year here in the SE Mississippi near a little town called Pachuta we have feeders up in the front and back porch. Usually have 3 or 4 who hang out regular. Last year we had 12-14 on the front porch all summer. It was a amazing. This year only 2 have shown up?

[Char-Gar]

I sense a parable here.

[smoked turkey]

We also have hummingbirds here and only 1 feeder. They are addictive to watch. Oddly enough I do enjoy watching the little boogers as they fight over the sweet stuff they know is inside. I am not derailing this thread hopefully, but we also have a Martin house up. No martins. They are sort of a status symbol around here. I admit to letting some "squatters" move in. I figure if the martins are too good for my house some other little bird down on its luck might as well have it. I think martins are the ultimate when it comes to a class of bird that feels entitled. I guess I'm not a good martin landlord.

[1hole]

It is natural that living beings take the easy path to life; the lure of "free" stuff from the hands of others applies to a huge nume of beings. When it's possible, animals, birds and men ignore the duty to work for their own care and quickly come to expect what they feel are their "rights", even to the point of bullying the weaker of their own numbers elbowing each other at the feeding trough of the largess of others.

With animals and birds the bullying is personal, it's not a group activity; only in humanity is group gratitude nonexistent. And, for them, there can never be "enough" of anything free, their cry is always "MORE!"

Humming birds have it easy and they do get momentarily satisfied. We humans are willing, even eager, to help the truly needy but no rational person can expect to ever have enough free stuff on hand to make America's professional parasite class placated for even a moment.

In fact, only humans have professional parasitic demagogues determined to play to that mindless sense of mob welfare entitlement. (Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson specifically come to mind. And then the Democrat/socialist Party in general.)

[farmbif]

if you give them so much sugar will they become diabetic, I don't want a welfare "project" in my backyard, they can live off the flowers here. I'll feed the domesticated critters but the wild ones will have to fend for themselves.

[GARD72977]

What scope do you reccommend for hunting them?

[RoyEllis]

What scope do you reccommend for hunting them?

You must use a scope especially invented for them.....FLIR....Fast Little Invading Rascals

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I was watching a liberal women being interviewed on FOX. She asked the moderator, "don't you think everyone is entitled to affordable housing?" Why would anyone want to condemn children to a life in the projects? Low rent housing has ruined many cities and towns. Not just in the US but around the world. San Bernardino, Ca was a to be a very nice place to live until the city counsel agreed to allow one thousand low rent apartments. Now the crime rate has gone thru the roof and all the big buildings downtown are empty and have plywood over the windows. When I was a boy, Cairo, Ill was a thriving city and it had been for centuries, located where the Mississippi and the Ohio Rivers meet. That fact alone was assured success, until low rent govt housing came in. My brother and I went there in 1995 and the place was deserted. You could have fired a machine gun done the main street and not hit anyone. Many if the businesses where burned for the insurance but there where row upon row of red brick two story govt houses filled with people. All Democrats of course.

[abunaitoo]

There is a law here against feeding birds.
Seems they become dependent on those free meals, and just hang around, waiting for the next handout.
They bring mites and dodo all over the place.
Don't eat bugs, so not doing anything to help balance nature.
gooberment says, the best thing to help the birds, is to ban feeding them.
Make them learn to take care of themselves.
Yet they are constantly coming up with programs, enticing people to go on welfare.
Free food, money, housing, health insurance, cell phone, car insurance, child care, almost everything working people have to work for.
Makes me wonder if it might just be better to go on welfare.
For many here, welfare is a living. A way of life for generations.
With homeless all around, I'm guessing many are headed that way.
Birds need welfare too.

[lightman]

My Wife and I feed the birds and I often refer to them as democrats. We go through a lot of Sunflower seeds and sugar.

[Land Owner]

Saw or read "somewhere" that hummer bills are "leathery" and not hard beaks. Bullying, notwithstanding, survival of the fittest is the struggle.

Were we to "cut off" welfare in its entirety (for animals) or humanity (a mind boggling concept), there will at first be a revolt, then an insurrection, then a die-off. It would be difficult, after just a little while, for the many with the ability to work, but won't, to "rail against the machine" when they are starving to death. There is no bread. Then let them eat cake...

[sharps4590]

We are.....inundated with hummers, every year. The wife is filling the feeders as I type this. We had AT LEAST 20 pairs of Baltimore Orioles and a couple Orchard Orioles before they went to nest and started eating bugs.

Every excuse possible has been offered for 3rd and 4th generation welfare. Say what you will, those able to work and won't are one of three things, lazy, lack ambition or have been convinced they ARE entitled. I am not to blame for any of the three. As a kid, we probably qualified for every form of welfare known today. Thing is, there wasn't much, if any, and there was one way out of our poverty. We took it.

[Winger Ed.]

What scope do you reccommend for hunting them?


Not sure.
But it will need a real wide field of view, and no more power than 3 or 4 'X'.magnifacation.
Then, either a large amount of #12 rat, or a couple feet if a fine 'chain' shot.

Shooting them with a single pellet or boolit won't do.
It's like bow hunting deer out past 100 yards:
They'll see and hear it coming and move out of its way.

[sniper]

Speaking of Hummingbirds;
Do you know why they hum?





They don't know the words!:mrgreen:

[rockrat]

I think we have two pair here. Years past we have had up to 5 pair, but fewer this year. When out of food, they will hover at the kitchen window and fuss or follow me around the yard, fussing up a storm, till I fill the feeder, then its kind of "its about time you filled these"!!!

The hum is from the wings beating, I believe.



Speaking of bums, there was a guy at wal-mart today, he had bought a hammock and tied it up to two trees and was laying in it and holding up his "need" sign to passing traffic.

[Scrounge]

There is a law here against feeding birds.
Seems they become dependent on those free meals, and just hang around, waiting for the next handout.
They bring mites and dodo all over the place.
Don't eat bugs, so not doing anything to help balance nature.
gooberment says, the best thing to help the birds, is to ban feeding them.
Make them learn to take care of themselves.
Yet they are constantly coming up with programs, enticing people to go on welfare.
Free food, money, housing, health insurance, cell phone, car insurance, child care, almost everything working people have to work for.
Makes me wonder if it might just be better to go on welfare.
For many here, welfare is a living. A way of life for generations.
With homeless all around, I'm guessing many are headed that way.
Birds need welfare too.

Do as I say...

[popper]

Thought the topic was about they guy who walked in front of my car, expecting me to stop, in the middle of the street. Spent several hours last week end watching the hummngbirds and yes one chased the others away. #1 hops to other side, #2 follows, so #1 moves again, rinse and repeat. Ever watch their 'tongue move when they drink?