How often do you change the food? (2 Viewers)

[Abbygirl]

About hummingbird food, How often do you change the food? I hear some change it every week, every month, and not as much. So i'm curious as to real birder's on this site how often do you change your hummingbird food? And where do you get your hummingbird food as well? And or do you make your hummingbird food?

 

[Lisa W]

When it is cool weather I change mine a minimum of every three days. As it gets hot here I switch and change it every day. (Well, until the bats come and then they drink it dry at night.) Simple formula is 1 part sugar to 4 parts water.

 

[Tz'unun]

About hummingbird food, How often do you change the food? I hear some change it every week, every month, and not as much.

"Every month"?? Or "not as much"?!? :eek!: Sorry, but anybody who leaves their hummingbird feeder out for a month or more had better have a liquor license, because the solution will turn into a really nasty "home brew" after a week or so under most conditions. You might ask whoever recommends this whether they'd drink a glass of Kool-Aid that had been sitting outdoors for a month!

Every 2 to 3 days is the standard recommendation that you'll find in most books on hummingbirds and in the instructions included with most of the mass-produced feeders. If you feed hummingbirds through the winter, you can go as long as 5 ot 6 days between changes as long as the temperatures are cool enough. If your feeder isn't in a protected spot, you may need to rinse it out and change the solution after every rain. And always change the solution if you see cloudiness, mold, drowned critters, or other floaty things and/or if the solution has a "beery" smell. Cleaning your feeder (or at least rinsing it with hot water) before every refilling will help keep most spoilage problems to a minimum.

Absolutely make your own feeder solution. There's nothing in the commercial "instant nectar" products that makes them worth the cost, and most contain unnatural chemicals that are potentially harmful at a hummingbird's high intake rates. The standard recipe is 4 parts water to 1 part white table sugar, but you don't have to measure it exactly. Don't add artificial coloring or substitute honey, powdered sugar, brown sugar, "raw" sugar, etc. Though boiling the solution is often recommended and some people say it helps retard fermentation, it's perfectly okay to make it with cold water.

 

[Abbygirl]

I've bought the store nector and the hummingbirds come more often then when I make it. And yes I do go by direction's! I too am shocked to hear that some people wait that long. But they are not true birder's. Thank you for your help and direction's!

 

[Curtis Croulet]

I've bought the store nector and the hummingbirds come more often then when I make it. And yes I do go by direction's! I too am shocked to hear that some people wait that long. But they are not true birder's. Thank you for your help and direction's!

Without exception, every ornithologist, hummingbird bander, experienced enthusiast, reserve (e.g. Ramsey Canyon, Kern River Preserve, Morongo Canyon) that I've ever talked to, swapped e-mail with or observed, makes their own clear nectar. Sometimes people argue about the best sugar-water concentration or best feeder, but nobody uses store-bought nectar mix. Nobody. If the birds really think nectar mix is better than homemade, then something's wrong with the nectar or procedures.

 

[Tz'unun]

Abbygirl, could it be that you started seeing more hummingbird visits after switching to the store-bought stuff because some young birds recently left the nest? Or some neighbors forgot to refill their feeder? Or one of the birds' favorite flowers stopped blooming? Or the store-bought mix contains less sugar than your home-made recipe, forcing the birds to visit more often? Or maybe it's just that you were paying more attention to the feeder after you started using the store-bought stuff?

What I'm trying to say is that you don't have enough anywhere near enough evidence to conclude that the birds like the store-bought stuff better than home-made sugar water. Other enthusiasts have tested the two side by side and found that hummingbirds prefer plain old sugar water.

Beside price and wasteful packaging, the main difference between store-bought and home-made is unnatural chemicals such as dyes, preservatives, and flavorings that are at best unnecessary and at worst harmful to the birds' health. Would you drink three to five times your weight in cherry Kool-Aid every day? See these pages:

http://www.trochilids.com/dye.html
http://www.hummingbirds.net/dye.html

If seeing more hummingbird visits is all that's important to you, try reducing your home-made recipe to 5 parts water to 1 part sugar. The birds will have to visit more often to get the same amount of energy without being exposed to potentially hazardous chemicals, and you'll save time and money.

 

[melaniecb]

Not to mention....Have you ever had birthday cake (or something similar) with RED icing on it? The taste of food coloring is really gross...I can't stand it. I can't imagine a little bird can stand it, especially one that had a palate for natural nectar and bugs. It just doesn't make sense to use the fake crap. The red dye is in it for OUR visual pleasure...

 

[Coverts]

I change mine at the first hint of cloudiness or in less than 10 days. Right now, my two 16oz Perky Pet feeders are getting drained in about 3-4 days, which is just fine by me.:t:

Mike

 

[Tz'unun]

Not to mention....Have you ever had birthday cake (or something similar) with RED icing on it? The taste of food coloring is really gross...I can't stand it. I can't imagine a little bird can stand it, especially one that had a palate for natural nectar and bugs. It just doesn't make sense to use the fake crap. The red dye is in it for OUR visual pleasure...

Absolutely. I love bright colors, and when I was a kid I had the idea to make a rainbow-colored cake. I divided white cake batter into six or seven different bowls and colored each with outrageous amounts of food coloring so the cake would be really bright. It tasted awful!

 

[Curtis Croulet]

I change mine at the first hint of cloudiness or in less than 10 days. Right now, my two 16oz Perky Pet feeders are getting drained in about 3-4 days, which is just fine by me.:t:

Mike

Sheri, do you have any numbers? I suspect the nectar is well on its way to becoming liquor well before it starts to get cloudy.

 

[Coverts]

Whose sheri?
Do you think 10 days is too long? Right now the weather is still fairly cool 50f +/-.

 

[humminbird]

Whose sheri?
Do you think 10 days is too long? Right now the weather is still fairly cool 50f +/-.

Sheri is the author of "Peterson Field Guides Hummingbirds of North America" among other books and works with Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory (not sure what your position is there Sheri so left it out).

Yes, IMHO 10 days is about 5 days too long.

Mark

 

[Lisa W]

Mark, She and her husband founded SABO back in 1996.
Coverts, Sheri goes by Tz'unun on the forum.

 

[Coverts]

Sheri is the author of "Peterson Field Guides Hummingbirds of North America" among other books and works with Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory (not sure what your position is there Sheri so left it out).

Yes, IMHO 10 days is about 5 days too long.

Mark

Mark, She and her husband founded SABO back in 1996.
Coverts, Sheri goes by Tz'unun on the forum.

Thank you. I thought Curtis was referring to me as Sheri.
As I am very much a novice when it comes to birds and birding, I appreciate the information and shall modify the amount of time between changes.
Mike

 

[Curtis Croulet]

Thank you. I thought Curtis was referring to me as Sheri.
As I am very much a novice when it comes to birds and birding, I appreciate the information and shall modify the amount of time between changes.
Mike

Sorry for the confusion. I was calling for a comment from Sheri Peterson. Yes, I think 10 days is way too long, and I think even waiting for visible milkiness is too long. Read Sheri's (Tz'unun) first post in this thread. She has the best advice: every 2 to 3 days max during warm weather; maybe as long as 5 or 6 days if you host hummingbirds in the winter, assuming you have winter nights in the 30s and 40s. Enthusiasts in really steamy climates might want to renew the nectar daily. When we visited Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, FL, I asked one of the keepers how frequently they put up new nectar for their captive hummingbirds. In their free-flight enclosures they use a mix that contains all nutrients, so they don't have to raise and offer Drosophila. They swap out the feeders twice a day. I suspect hummingbirds are tough enough that they aren't going to be actually harmed by old nectar -- they probably just go "Phew!!" and move on. But you put up feeders to attract hummingbirds, so you want to make your offerings as attractive as possible.

 

[Coverts]

Sorry for the confusion. I was calling for a comment from Sheri Peterson. Yes, I think 10 days is way too long, and I think even waiting for visible milkiness is too long. Read Sheri's (Tz'unun) first post in this thread. She has the best advice: every 2 to 3 days max during warm weather; maybe as long as 5 or 6 days if you host hummingbirds in the winter, assuming you have winter nights in the 30s and 40s. Enthusiasts in really steamy climates might want to renew the nectar daily. When we visited Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, FL, I asked one of the keepers how frequently they put up new nectar for their captive hummingbirds. In their free-flight enclosures they use a mix that contains all nutrients, so they don't have to raise and offer Drosophila. They swap out the feeders twice a day. I suspect hummingbirds are tough enough that they aren't going to be actually harmed by old nectar -- they probably just go "Phew!!" and move on. But you put up feeders to attract hummingbirds, so you want to make your offerings as attractive as possible.

Thanks Curtis.
WoW! I seem to have missed the recommendation for 2 -3 day changes.
Based upon my experience (which is very limited) I don't see a change in feeding habits or feeder visits when the food is left out for up to five days.
I must admit that I usually change the food at least once a week but have occasionally left it for up to 10 days. No more though.
Thanks for the input...I love to learn something new.
Mike

 

[Curtis Croulet]

From Sheri's message #3:

Every 2 to 3 days is the standard recommendation that you'll find in most books on hummingbirds and in the instructions included with most of the mass-produced feeders. If you feed hummingbirds through the winter, you can go as long as 5 ot 6 days between changes as long as the temperatures are cool enough. If your feeder isn't in a protected spot, you may need to rinse it out and change the solution after every rain. And always change the solution if you see cloudiness, mold, drowned critters, or other floaty things and/or if the solution has a "beery" smell. Cleaning your feeder (or at least rinsing it with hot water) before every refilling will help keep most spoilage problems to a minimum.

 

[Tz'unun]

Sorry for the confusion. I was calling for a comment from Sheri Peterson.

Who's Sheri Peterson?

When we visited Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, FL, I asked one of the keepers how frequently they put up new nectar for their captive hummingbirds. In their free-flight enclosures they use a mix that contains all nutrients, so they don't have to raise and offer Drosophila. They swap out the feeders twice a day.

The more nutrients you put in a nectar substitute, the better it will be as a growth medium for yeasts, bacteria, molds, etc. Plain sugar water takes far longer to spoil than those mega-fortified liquid diets for captive hummingbirds (thank goodness - I can't think of anyone who'd be willing to feed wild hummingbirds if their feeders needed maintenance twice a day).

I suspect hummingbirds are tough enough that they aren't going to be actually harmed by old nectar -- they probably just go "Phew!!" and move on. But you put up feeders to attract hummingbirds, so you want to make your offerings as attractive as possible.

I also think that hummingbirds are tougher and smarter than we usually give them credit for, but it's always better to err on the side of caution. If you don't have the time and/or interest to do feeder maintenance at least twice a week, it's better to just plant some appropriate flowers. Even a window box or patio planter with the right kind of flowers will bring them in so that you can enjoy them.

 

[Curtis Croulet]

Who's Sheri Peterson?

Sorry, Sheri. I'll never get this straight :-( I once worked with a Sheri Peterson.

 

[Tz'unun]

Abbygirl, could it be that...the store-bought mix contains less sugar than your home-made recipe, forcing the birds to visit more often?

In answering a similar question on another forum, I calculated the sugar content of Perky Pet's red stuff, made according to the directions on the box, and found that it mixes up to only slightly more than 14% sugar (weaker than a 1:5 home-made solution). Less sugar = more visits. Try reducing your home-made recipe to 1 part sugar in 5 parts water and see if the hummingbird visits increase.