Hummingbirds anyone?

[Anonymous]

I have two feeders out, 4 hummers arrived a month ago. I fill my feeders with hummingbird nectar dry pouch, 3 scoops, white sugar and filtered water.

[Anonymous]

What's dry pouch? Does it provide electrolytes?

[Anonymous]

Most ornithologists agree that you need to use normal white sugar (not organic or honey) and boiled, cooled water for hummingbird nectar. Avoid dyes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You must change the water every three days. Any mold will kill these birds.
We use the humzinger brand of feeders as they are super easy to clean and fill and has a perch for the hummingbirds. We make our own nectar (4 parts boiled cooled water and 1 part plain white sugar), changing it every 3 days. Else, you will have a problem with black mold that can be fatal to these birds.

http://www.amazon.com/Aspects-367-Hummzinger-Hummingbird-12-Ounce/dp/B000CSH7VA/ It is a bit pricy but our feeders have been going strong for many years. Very durable.



We wash the feeders with soap and water and then do a final rinse with vinegar and water and let it dry, before filling the nectar. It is amazing when they bring their fledglings and teach them to drink from the feeders. We also have a lot of nectar producing flowers in our garden and we attract many birds, butterflies and insects.

Here are some more tips -

1) Stick a large red bow near the feeder to attract the hummingbirds if it is your first time feeding them. The bigger and gaudier (maybe an old Christmas decoration) the better.

2) Do not use feeders with yellow colored feeding ports, they tend to attract wasps.

3) Use an old mascara brush to clean the mold off the feeding ports. I use a disposable one from a cosmetic counter.

4) When washing feeders, after using soap, rinse with vinegar water to remove all traces of soap and a final rinse with water to remove the vinegar residue. It is very easy to clean humzinger.

Since we change the water frequently, I have stopped filling the feeder to the brim. I make very small amounts of feeder water and do not fill the feeder very much. This way I can change the water frequently and cut down waste.

I'm inspired! Just bought a feeder and will give this a go. I've seen a few hummingbirds in my yard in years past, but would love see more!

If you have space in a sunny spot near your feeder, plant a couple of Vermillionaire cuphea, a couple of Black and Blue (or Black and Bloom) salvia, and Hot Lips salvia. The first two are definitely annuals here. My Hot Lips survived last winter. You should be able to find all three in a nursery and maybe even one or two at Home Depot.

Monarda Jacob Kline is often recommended, but I find it scraggly. I admit to lurking on a hummingbird forum, and people there swear by salvia Amistad, which I found at Merrifield, and Wendy's Wish. I could not find the latter locally and it seemed sold out everywhere on-line everywhere except Burpee (live plant, not seeds). They just arrived and I planted them today.

I have discovered another virtue of the Humzinger. Finches come to my feeders and sip water from the ant moat.

Most ornithologists agree that you need to use normal white sugar (not organic or honey) and boiled, cooled water for hummingbird nectar. Avoid dyes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's been too cold this spring. I think they're either late in arriving, or they were winter-killed on the way here, or starved.

This spring was rediculously cold. It's like we were living in Montreal.

No they arrive in this area between April 10th through the 20th. They are in Canada by May 10. It is very consistent each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been too cold this spring. I think they're either late in arriving, or they were winter-killed on the way here, or starved.

This spring was rediculously cold. It's like we were living in Montreal.

No they arrive in this area between April 10th through the 20th. They are in Canada by May 10. It is very consistent each year.

+ 1

We put feeders up by April 1st, and take them down by end of October or mid-Nov if it is unusually warm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's been too cold this spring. I think they're either late in arriving, or they were winter-killed on the way here, or starved.

This spring was rediculously cold. It's like we were living in Montreal.

No they arrive in this area between April 10th through the 20th. They are in Canada by May 10. It is very consistent each year.

+ 1

We put feeders up by April 1st, and take them down by end of October or mid-Nov if it is unusually warm.

Last year I had a hummingbird over the last two weeks of November, which included a number of days of temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees. It was likely a wayward rufous.

I got up before dawn everyday to put out the feeder. The nectar would have frozen if I had left it out all night. At the very end of November I went on a business trip and the rufous was not there when I returned.

I hope he found his way to Florida.

[Anonymous]

For the life of me, I don’t understand the use of feeders when you can simply grow so many flowers that hummingbirds love.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the life of me, I don’t understand the use of feeders when you can simply grow so many flowers that hummingbirds love.

I, personally, hang my feeder where I can easily observe it. I love watching the hummingbirds. I also have several flower beds planted with flowers they love.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the life of me, I don’t understand the use of feeders when you can simply grow so many flowers that hummingbirds love.

I, personally, hang my feeder where I can easily observe it. I love watching the hummingbirds. I also have several flower beds planted with flowers they love.

+1

I have a chair on my porch that is strategically positioned to sight my two feeders. I also have many hummingbird plantings.

[Anonymous]

I have a large patch of Bee Balm plants that the hummingbirds love to visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question - I put nectar in a feeder 3 weeks ago and haven't seen any yet. Do I need to replace the nectar every once in a while or does it not get old?

Yes, absolutely replace that nectar! Every 2-3 days otherwise you get bacterial growth that can kill them.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the poster upthread regarding Salvia Black and Blue or Black and Bloom. Everyone thinks hummingbirds are attracted to red but they were all over my Salvia B & Bs. I had Vermillionaire cuphea and crocosmia, next to the Salvia and it was clear they preferred the Salvia.

[Anonymous]

We occasionally get a hummingbird or two at our daylillies. But it’s a blink and you’ve missed them kinda thing. We do get a lot of yellow finches who love our echinacea and black eyed susans.