u/purpledreamer1622

Now it’s barely sulfuric and still has an apparent albeit weaker alcohol smell. This was a simultaneous wild fermentation - never anaerobic! So I strained after 2 weeks of stirring a LOT and weighing down the pulp. And inoculated with raw apple cider vinegar with the mother. Now it’s sitting and I plan to continue stirring 1-2x a day, until the mother starts to form. Ive had some failures so far, so does this all seem on the right track?

I plan to stir every day for 1-2(?) weeks before the vinegar phase? Yes? First time doing this! Are my recipe and method okay? I forgot to mention also the fruit pulp is cooked!

I knew I’d make it work, idk why so many encouraged me to throw the whole dang thing away! 😊

The first picture is after the bleach soak, the second picture is after the second vinegar boil and scrub, and the first pic is original. I do understand not taking the risk when it comes to a hummingbird’s life, but if I am not able to find replacement tips for this feeder, then I will either have to get creative (I’m trying 2 other bee guards before emailing the company and then if that doesn’t work I will be brainstorming again), or the whole feeder would be trash and I really don’t want to trash a expensive video camera feeder! So I am trying my hardest to restore these bee guards to their original LIKE NEW state, where there would be 0 (ZERO) RISK! I am also going to reach out to the company to see if they have any tips laying around I could have and promise to take good care of despite the fate of these poor tips!

So Reddit, what do you think? Safe to use (and that means PROPERLY, I clean my feeders spotless once a day and refill nectar every day so this one will be taken care of going forward) or still trash knowing they are 90% likely to not be replaceable?

Also to outline my plan:

Scrub these more and rinse extremely well.
Possibly do another bleach overnight soak on them. Rinse well after of course!

Plan A: perky pet bee guards (might fit, might not)

Plan B: silicone flower guards with holes smaller than the current flowers so bees might not be able to get in, and other bee guards might work on those flowers if so

Plan C: email company for replacement parts

Plan D: try to find a different base for the feeder

Plan E: set up this camera feeder with no nectar beside a different feeder filled with nectar.

Thank you for your hummingbird advice so far 🫡

The first picture shows the overall worst parts of the silicone pieces AFTER boiling in vinegar, scrubbing to death, and boiling again and scrubbing AGAIN! I scrubbed with the paper towels when I dried too. I’m going to run them through the dishwasher once, but then I don’t want to do much more after that because I don’t want to damage the integrity of the silicone (I will be soaking in water after the dishwasher). Are these stains okay as long as I monitor and make sure nothing is growing? The second pic is before cleaning 🤢 I will of course be keeping the feeder appropriately clean from now on. Thanks for any help!

The problem is I cannot easily find replacements for these bits especially the nectar guards 😢 if anyone knows of some, I’ll take ideas!

It’d be nice to have saved 50 vapes but hit less than one just when I want a little spice, but I know it doesn’t work like that at all and tbh I rarely even think like that. The last time I remember feeling challenged was in November. But sometimes I can remember the buzz, yet of course that quick fleeting feeling was a massive burden! I thought I was given a spliff once and was both scared i relapsed and hopeful I might have without it being my own fault. It wasn’t haha! I definitely smoke so much more weed. And most of all, I think about 50 vapes NOT in the landfill- My proudest metric tbh! And no my bank account does not have $1000 to show for it!!

Mango Blaze: Pretty tropical and very mango coconut, not my taste at all as a floral-leaning girlie. It’s at least got some kind of dimension to it. Charmander is perfect for someone who loves tropical fruity! Mango scents I use and prefer: Venus in Fleurs by Sorce and Under the Mango Tree by Anjali

Splash Berry: The best of the 3 in my humble opinion! It’s actually pretty nice. This is the only one I bought so I got to smell it evolve (is that a Wartortle?! Hahaha) unlike the other 2. It smelled like cotton candy at first spray but definitely dries down into something like a buttercream cupcake topped with blue rock candy or something similar to that! Blue pop rocks on top of a sugar cookie with blue icing! Very candy covered pastry! 🍬

Pineapple Spark: very pineapple! The only other pineapple I know of is Idyllic by Alloy studio, and honestly I’d prefer that cause at least it’s interesting. This smells boring to me but I know a pineapple goddess out there may need another pineapple frag and I’m not mad at it for her.

Overall they smell pretty good and nonoffensive but I don’t LOVE them and I would say they’re probably best used as a kid’s spray especially in the car and on bedding, though they’re perfectly wearable as well!!

Gotta sniff them all!