I know that mixing 1 part cane sugar to 3-5 parts water is the recipe for hummingbird food.
Now, do I boil the two together than cool. Or bring the water to boil first, then add sugar mix and let cool?
Does it matter?
TIA
Mix the sugar and water together and bring to a boil. Boil for a minute or two, just to make sure the sugar is dissolved, then cool the mixture and fill your feeders. Good luck! I spotted my first hummingbird on April 11th this year!
Here’s what they recommend at hummingbirds.net
you can buy pre-made nectar at pretty much anyplace that sells birdfeeders…just mix with water.
I’d heard you need to keep the feeder pretty clean as well. Might be good to throw it in the dishwasher periodically.
True - in normal summer weather, you can’t leave nectar in the feeder for more than 3 or 4 days, and if you see any black stuff in the feeder, that’s mold, and needs to be cleaned out thoroughly. If your hummers get a bad meal from your feeder, it’ll make them sick, and they’ll avoid your feeder in the future.
Also, no need to color the nectar with red food coloring, nor to have a red glass or plastic nectar reservoir; virtually all feeders have red “flowers” at the feeding ports, and that’s all that’s needed to attract the little devils.
Before putting a feeder in the dishwasher, just make sure it’s either glass (like the cheapo Perkie Pet brands) or polycarbonate (like the ones that Wild Birds Unlimited sells), and not just plain plastic!
Remember that if you set out food and then forget to keep it full, you may be dooming the bird to death. Hummingbirds need to feed very often, so if they establish a feeding site that suddenly goes dry, it might not work out too well for them.
Oh yeah, if you get an ant invasion of the feeder, try a little olive oil on the hanger.
More on ant invasions: the Wild Birds Unlimited hummingbird feeders have a built-in ant trap, a little dish set inside the main dish. You just fill it with plain water - ants can’t swim. You can also get little ant traps that attach to the hanger; same idea, just fill them with plain water.
The olive oil thing didn’t work for me. The ants marched right over it like it wasn’t there. Neither did petroleum jelly, that didn’t even give them pause. It got really nasty when the ants came in force. They’d get up into the bottle and drown by the thousands.
The only thing that’s worked for me was an ant trap - it’s actually a cat food can (washed in the dishwasher) with a hole poked throught he middle of the bottom and an s-hook put through that hole, then sealed with sillicone sealant. That goes between the hanger and the feeder, and then gets filled with water.
I do need to top off the water every few days, especially when the chickadees decide to use it as a mini birdbath.
I did see commercial ant traps at OSH (a hardware store) the other day, but they’re kind of small, I don’t know how long it would take for the water to evaporate out.
I don’t think this is really a serious concern. Hummingbirds are well adapted to ephemeral food sources (i.e. blooming flowers). If a food source disappears they’ll just pack up and go elsewhere. And if they have been feeding at a superabundant food source like a feeder for awhile, they’ll probably have some reserves to last them for a bit.