If you are tired of paying up the wazoo for that disgusting red shit in the stores to feed hummingbirds, may I suggest you make your own. This recipe will fill a standard hummer feeder with just a bit left over. This is a 1 cup sugar / 4 cups water ratio nectar recipe. Please do not add more sugar or water because you think it's not enough. Do not be generous or stingy with this recipe. It will cause the hummers to not bother coming to your feeder. Even the bees will avoid it like the plague. If you feel the need, you can add 2 drops of red food dye if you want but I never do. The hummers find the food with or without any useless coloring.
RECIPE:
1 cup white pure cane sugar (DO NOT USE powdered sugar, brown sugar or the large crystal sugar you use for baking decorating. This must be the white stuff you put in your iced tea, lemonade, or coffee.)
1 cup boiling hot water (This will be poured over the white sugar to dissolve it. Boiling water works fast to dissolve the sugar.)
3 cups cold water ( Tap water, cold bottled - spring, distilled, or deionized is fine)
Make sure the feeder is thoroughly washed and rinsed clean. I wash with Dawn (DO NOT USE BLEACH) and take the feeder completely apart to make sure there is no black fungus on the surfaces. I use straw brush cleaners for the little yellow fake flower pieces inside the tiny holes and a large baby bottle brush to clean the inside of the nectar holder. Then I rinse with clean water 3 times and then pour boiling water over it all to make sure nothing will grow in the feeder. Then put the feeder back together and make the nectar.
In a clean rinsed glass bowl or pitcher add one cup sugar and one cup boiling water. Mix well until sugar is completely dissolved. Add in the 3 cups of cold water and stir a bit, then pour into the clean reservoir of the feeder and screw on the bottom. Do not turn the feeder over to it's proper upright setting until you get ready to hang it. Wait to get outside or you'll have sugar water all over the kitchen floor.
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| My feeder set up |
Special note:
Hang the feeder under the eaves of your house to keep the sun from baking it. Hanging it out of the sun is also good because if there is a rain storm, being out of the rain, the nectar won't get watered down. Hummingbirds will not drink hot or watered down nectar. Also, to keep the ants and other crawlers from getting to the feeder apply a good gloppy amount of Vaseline to the hooks holding the feeder. I also have a water cylinder over my feeder. Really it doesn't work at all too well but I keep it there as a second Vaseline blocker trap. You can find them on Amazon.
I strongly suggest that you replace the nectar every 2 weeks during cool Spring days and every week in the hot Summer months. Do not store extra nectar in the fridge. It will go moldy within a week or two. Just throw out whatever leftover nectar you have or add it to another feeder.
Hope this helps all you hummingbird lovers.
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