Feeding Hummingbirds
A Quick Guide to Feeding Hummingbirds
While you can buy nectar mixes for feeding hummingbirds, there really is no need to do so. The only ingredient you really need to buy is regular cane sugar (sucrose), which is the same white sugar that is used in cooking. Hummingbirds literally spend their lives in search of food, and they get everything they need from the nectar in the flowers and insects which they eat daily.
When you are feeding hummingbirds with a feeder, this is giving them a little extra fuel so that they can maintain their energy while searching out their natural diet. Each hummingbird goes to a flower for nectar over one thousand times a day, and sometimes uses up a lot of energy hovering in midair picking out insects to eat. Insects are the protein in the hummingbird’s diet and they get minerals and amino acids from insects. The homemade nectar given to them in feeders is simply meant to be a source of quick energy.
The sugar nectar recipe for feeding hummingbirds is one part sugar to four parts water. That means if you have one cup of water, you need to add one-fourth cup sugar. Do not give hummingbirds brown sugar, honey, or any other sugar type--they need white sugar only--and other kinds of sugars can be fatal. Also, do not add red or any other food coloring to the water to attract hummingbirds. The colors on the outside of the feeder will do the job just fine without causing illness.
When feeding hummingbirds, many people boil their water and sugar mixture for two minutes and then let it cool before adding it to the feeder. While this practice is not harmful, it also is not necessary. In fact, all you need to do is mix your sugar with warm water from your faucet and it is ready to go. You can store extra sugar water for a week in the refrigerator.
Hummingbirds should normally empty your feeder in three days or under. Before refilling, you should wash it out by running hot water from the faucet through the feeder. If you have a brush you can use, like a bottle brush, you should use that as well. Do not wash the feeder with any kind of soap. Once a month, you will need to do a more thorough washing. This time you should mix one-fourth cup of bleach with one gallon of water. Soak the hummingbird feeder in the mixture for approximately an hour and then rinse it out with regular water. You can refill it immediately.
If you are just starting feeding hummingbirds and they are not yet coming to your feeder in high enough numbers to empty it every three days, you should dump the sugar water and clean it out anyway. If you notice any cloudiness or mold, empty the feeder and use the bleach/water cleaning method.
Contrary to what many people think, not taking your feeder down in the fall will not cause hummingbirds to stay behind and miss their annual migration. The forces that carry them south are much stronger. Although scientists do not know for sure, they believe migration is more related to the changing number of daylight hours. Be sure to start feeding hummingbirds in the spring by putting the feeders up with the advent of warmer weather. For those farthest north, this might be late May or the first of June, while in more southern areas it could be as early as March.