How do you heat your hummingbird feeders?

Any tips or tricks or easy ideas?

Katy, why are you heating them?

Hi Katie, Are you talking about heating them when the weather gets very cold?

When our weather gets that cold the hummingbirds are long gone. Headed South. However, Katie you are in zone 8 and I am in zone 5. But even then I would think they wouldn't stick around if it is that cold. I always have mine hanging in the sunlight. Maybe that is what you mean? Not only that, I think it shines brighter and attracts them more. I never thought about it heating up from the sun but it probably does.

Hee hee, yes. Not heating them in general, just want to keep them liquid when it gets below freezing . . . for the Anna's, who don't leave.

Are you saying you have them year around? I lived in Seattle for 30 years and never had them all year. Put a little whiskey in it and the alcohol won't let it freeze. You won't have that much time in the winter when you have to worry about freezing, just keep another one handy to put out on those days. Bring the frozen one in and stick it in the microwave for a bit and trade them off and on.

My DH,who is also a born native of Seattle, suggests you put them in a shoe box and ship them South. He says you buy his ticket and he will hand-carry them.

Yup. The Anna's hummingbirds stay here year-round. On one of the PNW threads, there were pictures of devices people had rigged up to keep the nectar warm during the coldest part of the winter. The last three years have been cold enough that my feeders would have frozen.

http://www.seattleaudubon.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=262

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna%27s_Hummingbird

Not so sure about the whisky :-) But tell your DH, thanks for the offer, but if anybody is going to hand carry anything to the warm weather in January, it's going to be me!!