All throughout my childhood we had hummingbird feeders in the backyard. In fact, we had two of them and my dad was always running out there to refill them what this syrupy sugar water stuff that I never really understood about.
I didn’t think a whole lot about them growing up, they were just always sort of there. But eventually when I moved away and began to raise my own family I realized that I missed those bird feeders, and I missed all those buzzing little birds hovering around and darting in and out of the bird feeder with their long beaks.
What to fill your humming bird feeder with hummingbirds like nectar, and when they can’t get nectar they will take syrupy sugar water and in fact that’s what you’re going to put inside your hummingbird feeder. To make sugar water that the hummingbirds will love, use one part ordinary sugar. I’m talking regular white cane sugar here. Mix the sugar with four parts water. Some people think that you have to boil the water, but you don’t.
You see, the water has to ferment but it doesn’t have anything to do with you; that is, you don’t have to do anything yourself to make the water ferment (hence no boiling on your part). No, the birds themselves will carry microorganisms with them and deposit them into the sugar water when they drink. These microorganisms will cause the fermentation in the water. You can mix up a batch of sugar water and keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks. This is especially handy if your birds go through a lot of sugar water and you don’t want to have to keep mixing it every few days, you can make a big batch of it and just keep it in the fridge and dispense as needed.
Watch out for this pitfall: when you’re making your mixture, be sure not to add too much sugar. My recipe calls for one part sugar and four parts water and you really don’t want to put in any more sugar than that because… too much sugar attracts insects, and you really don’t want that!
How to maintain your bird feeder hummingbirds are very picky and they’re very particular. If your feeder is filthy with spoiled sugar water, the birds won’t drink it! So in this regard you don’t have to worry about making the birds sick by not maintaining your feeder, they just won’t drink and they’ll find somewhere else to go… which destroys the whole point of it right? Every time you fill up your bird feeder, be sure to flush it out first with hot tap water. Do not use soap! You can use a brush of some sort if you want to scrub out the feeder. But I don’t usually find that necessary.
If your bird feeder starts to grow black mold, then wash it out with a bleach soak, not soap. Also, if your sugar solution starts to get murky and cloudy then it needs to be replaced even if you just replaced it a couple of days ago. Usually once a month you need to clean the feeder with a solution of bleach and water. Use a gallon of water and a fourth cup of bleach to soak the feeder for one hour than clean with a brush and rinse well.