Feeding the hummingbirds

      I love the hummingbirds in my yard every year.  When I was a kid, my mother would make hummingbird feed and fill our feeders and we would watch as sometimes up to 20 birds would come feeding.  It was a frenzy.  She always bought the “mix” from Wal-Mart or someplace.  That was back in the 1970’s or early 1980’s.  Then there was a scare about the red dye causing health issues with people and birds and so forth.  So my mother started mixing her own feed, just using sugar and water.  The birds still came in a frenzy, so she never went back to buying the more expensive feed mix from the store.  Why do that when you can make your own with the same results. 
I have checked several sites and all seem to say the same thing.  The ratio for your hummingbird feed should be one cup of sugar to four cups of water.  Most places recommend boiling it to help keep bacteria from growing and also to help dissolve the sugar more completely in the water. 

Recipe for Hummingbird Nectar

1 cup sugar

4 cups water

Bring to roiling boil, then remove from heat.  Once it is cooled to room temperature, put in the feeders and feed your birds. 

 

     So that is pretty straight forward.  No need to add food coloring. Most feeders already have red or other attractive colors on them.  The birds seem to be able to find it without much help from us.  It is hard to catch the birds at my feeder since they are so fast, so I will include a picture or two here, please forgive the lack of clarity.  I only get two or three at a time where I am, not the 20 or so my mother gets out in the country, but I am happy with that. 

     It is recommended that you take the feeders down in the fall due to the birds migrating south.  This is of course dependent upon your location.  I am in the mid-west and most hummingbirds head south in mid-September.  So I am for around the 15^th of September, but later if it stays warmer out, sooner if it starts getting really cold early.  I do not want to be responsible for keeping a bird here past prime time to go south and result in the bird dying due to weather conditions.  They are just too beautiful for that. 

     So I hope this little blurb helps you save money making homemade nectar for hummingbirds and deciding how long to keep your feeders up.  Good luck and enjoy those beautiful birds!

Hummingbird sitting at feeder

Hummingbird hovering at feeder