The-Artistic-Garden's Blog

Spring Time Heralds The Return Of
My Favorite Birds – The Hummingbirds

This is such a fun time of year … I start to be on the look-out for the first Ruby-throated Hummingbird to make its appearance at my house. Last night I figured I had better make up a small batch of my trusted hummingbird syrup nectar recipe. (Recipe is down below.)

Even though hummingbirds typically arrive in the greater Nashville area around mid-March, I live about 40 miles south of the Music City and thusly it seems it is never until right around April 15th (yes, TAX day!) that I get to see one.

I don’t know if you are a hummingbird lover like I am, but if not … I encourage you to give it a try this year and make a batch of hummingbird syrup and place a feeder out in your garden or better yet, hang one outside a window. This way you’ll get to see all the cute antics and buzzing around they do. Hummers are very entertaining, for sure.

Once you hang out a feeder, I’ll bet it won’t be too long thereafter that you’ll have these little marvels buzzing and chirping all over your garden until Fall comes. Some of you in warmer climates, or other parts of the world may never be without these little fellas gracing your garden. You’re lucky.

So, since I am now officially on the hummingbird look-out, that means I’ve already made my batch of hummingbird syrup and have hung out the feeder. Then it dawnd on me to post and give a heads-up to the rest of you to not forget “it’s hummer time of the year”. Are you ready for them?

I also thought I’d pass along the homemade syrup recipe I use and to also direct you to a website that will certainly prove to be helpful and interesting, especially if you’re new to the joys of hummingbirds. Those of you who already are into hummers may not be aware of this site. There’s tons of good info, photos and such.

I will highly recommend visiting Hummingbirds.net which I found many years ago and have found it to be a trusty source of information and also the migration maps that are on that site are something I check every year. That’s where I saw that on March 28th this year, a Ruby-throat was spotted in Nashville and recorded.

Don’t Buy Expensive Store-Bought Nectar! Make Your Own

Not that I want to take a sale away from any retail establishment, but I learned early on that the packaged hummingbird nectar mix being sold is way too expensive as compared to how simple it is to make, but also that the red coloring that is put into the commercial mixes is possibly very BAD health-wise for these little guys. I have read in more than one place that red dye could cause tumors in hummingbirds.

Plus, they do NOT need to see a RED feeder or RED nectar solution in order to find it, or to be attracted to it. I can state this for a fact as:
     A) I had one feeder whose red feeder base got very bleached out by the sun, and it was more of a dull beige and those hummers never minded one bit! They found it without trouble, and;
     B) In all my feeders I only use my homemade nectar and it is crystal clear. Again … those hummers can always find the feeders, day in and day out.

Here’s the artificial nectar/syrup recipe I have used for years, and it’s one that you will find all over the internet and in hummingbird books. You can trust this one as being correct.

1. Use one part ordinary white cane sugar to four parts water. Mix until sugar is thoroughly dissolved. As example: 1 cup of sugar + 4 cups of water.

   Though it is not necessary to boil the sugar and water mixture, I do. It certainly helps to dissolve the sugar quickly. The reason people think they have to boil the mixture is to “kill” the microorganisms that cause fermentation in the syrup. But this just isn’t true. The microorganisms actually are transported to the feeder on hummingbird bills. This is why CLEANING your feeder and replenishing the syrup regularly is most important.

2. Store unused syrup in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Once you get the hang of how quickly you’ll be going through the syrup, you’ll know what size batches to mix up. Me … I only get a maximum of 4 hummers late in the summer. So they don’t consume too much.

   But I know of a hummer-lover who gets so many at her home that she uses up 5 lbs. of sugar every week! Whoa … she has so many hummingbirds flying around you wouldn’t believe it. (Yes … I am sort of jealous. Well, maybe just half as many as she gets would be fabulous!)

This homemade hummingbird syrup approximates the average sucrose content (about 21%) of the flowers that are favored by North American hummingbirds.

**Word of caution: Do NOT, I repeat do NOT add more sugar to the recipe thinking you will be doing the hummers a favor. It doesn’t work that way. Just like with us humans, a little sugar is OK, but too much is detrimental to our health.

It’s the same with hummingbirds. Plus they will be feeding from real flowers, so rest assured they are getting the nutrients they need. Just stick to the proportions of water + sugar in the recipe.

Oh, lest I forget, I don’t care what you read … everyone I know who feeds hummers has ants and other flying bugs getting attracted to the feeder. There are easy ways to combate this. I encourage you to look for the answer to this on the site I have referred you to.

My solution to combat ants is to use a little cup thingie that hangs in the middle of the feeder hanger. I found one at Wal-Mart for 98-cents. It holds water (or you can put a little cooking oil into it) and when the ants try to climb down the feeder hanger to try to get to the feeder openings, they can’t. They hit the water (or oil) in the cup’s bottom and that’s as far as they can go. Works like a charm for me!

And before I end this post, I had to include this photo that is another shot taken along with the one up above. I am sooo jealous of her …

Get your hummingbird syrup ready … get your feeder positioned … and wait for the fun to begin!