Taking Care of Hummingbird Visitors

I look forward to the return of our hummingbird visitors every May. We usually see a hummingbird scout once or twice in late April flit in and check out the offerings and then dart way. The others show up consistently to visit the Cottage's gardens and feeders in May.

Since today is the day that I clean and refill the feeders, I thought I would chat about the care and feeding of hummingbirds. First and best for feeding hummers is to provide them with flowers that offer them ample tasty nectar. Trumpet vine, fuschia, nicotiana, salvia, honeysuckle, petunias, coral bells, daylilies, yarrow, to name a few. In our gardens, the hummers also regularly visit the paintbox colored zinnias and baskets of geraniums. We have so many flowers here and often see the hummingbirds darting and squabbling over the flowers all over the yard. But I love being able to hear the beat of their wings, their little chirps and see their brilliant colored plumage, so I put feeders close to the places we sit outside so we can have a front row seat to enjoy them!

These feeders are visible from the veranda and the patio 

The veranda offers us a clear view of the hummers
while keeping us out of their flight path.

Feeding hummingbirds is easy and fairly inexpensive, all you need is sugar and water. The ratio of sugar to water is one part sugar to four parts water (example: 1 cup sugar to four cups water). I boil it for 5 minutes and then cool completely before filling the feeders. Use plain white sugar, not turbinado, or any other kind of sweetener, since these have properties that are not in their natural diet. Please, please, please, don't add red food dye to the sugar water. The dye is very bad for our little friends and it is unnecessary since the feeders are colorful and are attractive to them.

There are a few other things that I would like to mention about the feeders. Drawing hummingbirds to the feeder is a great way to enjoy a charming bit of Creation, but it is important to make sure that what is being offered will be healthy and safe for them to eat. Flower nectar is fresh and mold free, so what is offered in the feeders should mirror nature. Sugar water will ferment while sitting in the sun and mold will grow on the inside of the bottle and will hide in the flower shaped feeding receptacles. Fermented sugar water isn't healthy for the birds and mold is down right toxic to them. So if feeding them is something desirable, then going the extra mile to make sure it is healthy and safe for the hummers is important.  I fill the feeders a couple times a week, especially when the weather is very hot.  It will ferment and go cloudy in about 3 days, so to avoid waste I only fill the feeders about half full when it is really hot.

It takes 3 days or less for the food to ferment in hot weather

Once a week I take them all down, scrub, bleach and rinse them very well before refilling them to make sure that there is no mold growing in the containers.

Once a week I bleach and scrub the feeders and then rinse them well in clear water

 to make sure there is no bleach residue.

Crystal clear and safe for the birds to eat.

 That way when I see the little guys zipping around the feeders I know that what they are eating is tasty and wholesome.