I've been using the same recipe for hummer nectar for 2 years but for some reason this year they are not coming to the feeder. I boil water and sugar for 20 minutes to sterilize it and it cooks down to a light sap-like liquid, add a drop of red food coloring, cool it off and pour into feeders. Last year I had up to 8 birds at a time fighting to get in there and this year nothing. I've seen them zoom by but they aren't stopping in for more than a check and then leave again. The only difference is last year I hung them in shade and this year I put 2 of them on a shepards staff in a sunnier location that was more convenient for me. Any ideas?
making my own hummer nectar
Maybe they felt safer/protected in the shadier area? If they're some of your regulars maybe they just need to find their new feeding station? Or maybe you're growing enough nectar plants they don't need supplemental food???? If os just keep gardening and sit back and watch them :)
Liz
Once the hummers get used to eating from your feeders, you can eliminate the red food coloring... I think its better for them that way.
I do think the shade makes a difference in the temperature in the bottle. Setting in the sun, the stuff heats up pretty good (think about sun tea?) - that may be why they don't eat it.
I made new nectar yesterday, washed their feeders and hung back in the shade this morning. I came home to find purple finches, gold finches and downy woodpeckers hanging around on the hanger - hey get off....
I miss my hummers!
PS joepyeweed
I agree with you about the red food coloring - isn't that stuff bad for kids with allergies? I don't know but I got the recipe off the net, but I cut it back to just sticking a toothpick in and just swishing what sticks to it into the nectar. I'm ready to give it up. Thanks for jogging me about that.
I don't use red food coloring or buy any of the store bought nectar that has additives.
I use the old standard homemade 1:4 ratio to make my own nectar.
1 cup sugar to 4 cups water.
Only during the winter months when flower nectar is scarce do I make it a bit sweeter using a 1:3 ratio.
I start off by boiling one cup of water and dissolving the sugar in that...then adding the rest of the water mixing well. I keep it stored in my refrigerator and pour only a couple of ounces into each feeder. The hummies will finish that off within a day or two and then I can rinse out the feeders and add fresh nectar.
If I use my 12ml hummie feeders they empty those out within a matter of hours :o)
Nectar left out in our 100+ temperatures here will spoil quickly and start to form bacteria. I hang my feeders from the porch eaves and the trees where they remain shaded.
~ Cat
I do mine almost the same way, Cat. But I boil the whole thing for 3 minutes, then let it cool. Fill the feeders and keep the remaining mix in the fridge.
NO red food coloring!
PiggyPoo :0)
THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know an autistic adult (26 years old). If he has ANYTHING with red food dye in it he “gets buzzed”. It causes him to flip his arms up and down, uncontrollably. He communicates well, so if you ask him why he is doing what he is doing, he says “I’m buzzin’”. This guy can memorize a jukebox by number and song in minutes. Name a state and city and hand him a map – he will point to the city. He has a mind that I’d love, with the exception of the fact that he lacks almost all social skills.
Red food dye is nasty!!!!! Nobody that I know of has studied what it might do to birds. PLEASE DO NOT use red food dye in Hummingbird nectar!!!!
Mark
I make my own nectar with 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. I never use dye. I also don't bother to boil the water. It makes no sense to sterilize nectar and put it into a feeder which has not been sterilized. It's just making more work.
Karen
I use Cat's ratio too I just use hot water and sugar. RED DYE IS A NO NO!!!! No proof that it hurts the little guys but why take that chance. Nothing can be easier that sugar and water.
This message was edited Jun 24, 2006 10:00 PM
i actually sterilize my feeders once a week, by boiling them, as well. i was just always taught to boil the water to get rid of the chlorine in the water, and have read that it is a good idea also because it gets rid of any mold or yeast spores that may be in the sugar, which may make the solution go bad, quicker.
I am a nurse who has worked in surgery with sterile equipment and solutions for 30 years. Trust me, sterilizing the solution and pouring into an unsterile container which is open to air doesn't compute. Even if solution and container are sterile as soon as it is subjected to air and placed into a warm environment it makes a wonderful breeding environment for organisms. That surar-y sweet liquid makes a wonderful culture medium. Not to mention after the first germy bird sticks his dirty beak in there. (think in terms of he probably ate bugs and minute ago and the bugs could have been sitting on a pile of dog poop a minute before that)
Hate to say it...but I don't sterlize my feeders either. I do wash them...but don't do the boiling thing. As for the nectar...the only reason I boil a cup of water is so that when I add the cup of sugar it will dissolve faster :o) then I can add the other three cups of water and store it in the refrig quicker.
~ Cat
in total agreement with Texas PP on ratio .....but I also believe that boiling all the water eliminates some of the additives in our water supplies that might be harmful.......edited to say that I feel it's best to keep the mixture as fresh as possible......when taking from refrigerator warm to room temp before putting it in the feeders
This message was edited Jun 25, 2006 12:23 PM
see www.hummingbirdsplus.org
I figured out what was different this year when a beautiful male ruby throated hummer showed up during dinner on the deck..... I have my big bird feeders hung too close by and the hummer didn't like all those bigger birds around so he didn't stay. I moved all of them and am letting the hummers have the space they've had the past few years. we are regularly getting gold and purple finches, all the chickadees, titmice, wrens, cardinals, rose breasted grosbeak, and pileated woodpeckers, downy peckers, flickers, etc. at our feeders. Too much activity for the little hummer.
Boiling the solution isn't to sterilize. It is to remove the chlorine and as a plus it helps the sugar to dissolve.
I have only home-grown expertise in this but the site I originally read said to boil 20 minutes to sterilize. We have well water and its perfectly suitable for human use, but still I am not opposed to making sure they are getting a sterile solution. Before, I was getting some algae type growth in the feeders and so began using bleach to clean them. So each year has been a new learning experience. They should package a few instructions when they sell hummer feeders - LOL. Anyway. I am so hoping they head back. Last year it was so much fun to watch them - we eat on our deck all the time during the summer and they were right there with us at every meal.
I make my own also using bottled water and sugar. I have had the most fun watching the precious little darlings run in and drink up. The little female even lands on the shephards hook and rest. They are so cute.
I've been making my own nectar this year as well, same ratio 1:4. This week though I used raw or turbino sugar instead of refined white sugar. Since the raw sugar is slightly brown when it's mixed with the water it takes on a slightly reddish hue. I had never used food coloring before, but now it almost looks like I am. The hummers are just as interested in the feeder so I don't think they've noticed or cared about the change.
Please do not use raw sugar in your feeders. This can be poisonous!!
See www.hummingbirds.net and go to the Hummingbird Feeders section.
OMG! I'm glad I posted that because otherwise I never would have known. Thank you!
You are very welcome AlanaG!