Feeding Hummingbirds?

Who feeds the little critters? I do up at the lake and just bought my nectar mix yesterday. I think we have a couple weeks before we see them yet especially us northern folk.

I do but make my own nectar…. 1 cup white sugar 4 cups water boil it….

I hang one feeder on my deck in the north metro and always get some.

Audubon and other bird smart organizations recommend 1:4 refined white sugar to water as the best, cheapest and safest food for them. No honey, no red dye, etc.

My son inlaw calls them terrorists. They get territorial and aggressive at times. When he stands at the edge of the property next to the woods to pee they dive bomb him and scare the crap out of him! Funny as he$$!! Of course they have nests right there in the diamond willows too! I bought him one of those small feeders you clip on the bill of you’re hat. He sits on the deck and they feed right off his hat now. Which only makes them more attracted to him!

the first part of the year and again in the fall when there start heading south I mix it 3 to 1. mid summer 4 to 1. I use red food coloring……the new stuff is supposed to be bird friendly.

and I usually set them out about a week prior to fishing opener. same with oriole juice.

I love them. 4:1 Water:Sugar and no food coloring. I watch the migration:

Hummingbird Migration Map

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

I love them. 4:1 Water:Sugar and no food coloring. I watch the migration:

Hummingbird Migration Map

Cool map!

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

I love them. 4:1 Water:Sugar and no food coloring. I watch the migration:

Hummingbird Migration Map

I’ve been following it is well. Looks like probably at least a week or more likely two before I start to see them. Anyone hang out one of those nesting material cages for them to use? Thought of getting one.

4 to 1 boil, no need for food coloring, usually your feeder has red on it. May 15th give or take a few days here in Walker, Mn

I know what happens if you don’t feed them….

Found this little freeze-dried guy on a shelf in the back garage the other day. The boys named her Hummy and want to bring it in for show-and-tell some day

Attachments:

1. 

   IMG_20200419_182700.jpg
   

I put out an Oriole jelly feeder the other day and saw on it this morning. I’ll be hanging another jelly feeder and two nectar/orange feeders as well. We usually get three to six nesting pairs coming to ours thru the summer. Its fun when the chicks fledge and start coming in too. Love the Orioles. Last year we had a pair of Orchard Orioles visit daily. For all of our flowers we don’t have any luck with hummers here at home. At the cabin we have tons of them

We feed the hummers. They are cool to watch. The trick by me is getting the Orioles to come in. They pass through the yard but they rarely come to the Oriole feeder. I have heard once they come they stay. Trying this year with a new Oriole feeder.

B-man wrote:

Found this little freeze-dried guy on a shelf in the back garage the other day.

I found one last year in the same spot in my garage. Pretty neat to see up close, though.

We found one last summer dead in the cup holder of my grandsons stroller. I think I didn’t get the feeders changed and cleaned out when I should have because we didn’t get up to the lake for over a week one time. The nectar must have went bad and he drank from it. All I could figure.

shefland wrote:

4 to 1 boil, no need for food coloring, usually your feeder has red on it. May 15th give or take a few days here in Walker, Mn

This. As long as the feeder has red, they will be attracted. I’m sure most of us have witnessed them checking out red pots, red Solo cups, etc.

How long can you leave the same nectar in the feeder before it goes bad?

Fishing59 wrote:

How long can you leave the same nectar in the feeder before it goes bad?

Depends a lot on temperature. If it is cloudy, it’s bad. They won’t drink it if it’s bad.

I have a feeder that is some kind of brushed brown metal. It has flowers that were once red, but are deeply faded and not red now. The birds have no trouble finding the clear sugar juice. If you have a plastic red one all the better, but I don’t think it is neccesary to dose the food with red.

I plant a lot of succulents around the house in hollowed out stumps and have a couple pots on the deck. The hummingbirds like those.

I may try a nectar feeder after reading through this. They’re neat little birds.

The red coloring is not needed and some studies indicate it is bad for the hummies – use the sugar and water method. Stay away from the commercial mixes or ready to use stuff.

Snake ii’s wrote:

The red coloring is not needed and some studies indicate it is bad for the hummies – use the sugar and water method. Stay away from the commercial mixes or ready to use stuff.

According to the hummingbird info sites many of the commercially available mixes are fine to use and some even recommend them. I use one that still needs to be mixed with water. It’s like a simple syrup I guess. They loved it last year. I can’t remember the brand name now I’ll have to look.

the thing I’ve seen the last few years are the feeders themselves.you cant find the good simple ones anymore, especially oriole feeders. there all this goofy fancy crap.

the simpler the better.

Read the links on commercial mixes. Review and make your own decision. You do not have to buy a mix, it is easy enough to make your own.
https://journeynorth.org/tm/humm/food_red_dye.html
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/news/a43485/red-dye-hummingbird-nectar/

I had two hummingbirds that got under my boat lift canopy at the lake last summer. One was dead in the boat and the other was flying around like crazy trying to get out. Apparently they couldn’t figure out how to fly down a foot and out the side. I tried for about an hour to catch the live one, but those suckers are fast! He must have ended up getting worn out as well and I found him dead in the boat a few hours later. Felt bad for the little buggers……..

My parents feed them in multiple areas, one spot is 3 feet from the sliding door. One morning i opened the door as well as the screen door, my mistake. 2 hummingbirds flew into the house. We opened all windows and the other sliding deck doors, no luck getting them to fly out. Gave up chasing them around the house and sat down to watch tv.
Nothing quite like looking over at the couch and having a hummingbird sitting on the armrest staring at you.
They both did making it out of the house about 15 minutes after we stopped chasing them.

Video from last spring up at the cabin.

A few years back, we were up north for the week of the opener. Our feeder musta been the only food around for a large flock of migrating hummingbirds. There were two dozen of them around the feeder at any one time. They were sucking the entire large container dry each day we were there. Never seen anything like it before or since.

Attachments:

1. trim.98DCE9F8-6A68-4091-A57A-E93A4947457A.mov

Just had our first hummingbird visitor this morning! Get those feeders up.

I had a hand full over the weekend. They already drank a 1/8-1/4 of what I put out. Keep the feeders full.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Just had our first hummingbird visitor this morning! Get those feeders up.

Got mine up Saturday!! Nothing yet but they will be coming soon!

They should be getting to my area soon I’ve seen sightings logged as far north as Crosby now. I’m heading to the lake either tomorrow or Wednesday so feeders will be put out then but it might be another week before I see any myself as it’s staying pretty cool up here this week.