Proper sugar ratio: 1:4 in weight, real volume, grain volume? (1 Viewer)

[LucaPCP]

How should I mix the sugar and water for the colibri?

I would love if somebody could give me weight proportions between water and sugar.

I keep hearing "1:4 in volume", but the fact is, sugar is granular, with a fill ratio which I guess is around 50%. So if you do:

a) Put 1 part sugar, add 4 parts water.
b) Put 4 parts water, add sugar till you get 5 parts.

If you do b), you get twice as much sugar than if you do a), approximately.
But if you do a), you need to measure accurate solid volumes, which is much harder to do than measuring accurate liquid volumes.

So, can someone give me the ratio in weight? And tell me whether 1:4 refers to method a) or b)? I and my colibris would appreciate this very much!!

Luca

 

[aveschapines]

How should I mix the sugar and water for the colibri?

I would love if somebody could give me weight proportions between water and sugar.

I keep hearing "1:4 in volume", but the fact is, sugar is granular, with a fill ratio which I guess is around 50%. So if you do:

a) Put 1 part sugar, add 4 parts water.
b) Put 4 parts water, add sugar till you get 5 parts.

If you do b), you get twice as much sugar than if you do a), approximately.
But if you do a), you need to measure accurate solid volumes, which is much harder to do than measuring accurate liquid volumes.

So, can someone give me the ratio in weight? And tell me whether 1:4 refers to method a) or b)? I and my colibris would appreciate this very much!!

Luca

I do a); I use normal household measuring cups, and mix 1/2 cup sugar with 2 cups water, which gives me 2 cups of nectar. I no longer measure out the water; I use a two-cup container, put in the sugar, add water to fill, and mix.

Helen

 

[LucaPCP]

Thanks Helen!
So it is 1:4 in dry volume... from http://www.reade.com/Particle_Briefings/spec_gra2.html the specific weight of granulated sugar is 0.85, so the correct ratio in weight is 1 part sugar and 4/0.85 parts water, or about 1:5 in weight. This helps! I have a precise kitchen scale, so doing it in weigt is easier for me.

Luca

 

[aveschapines]

Thanks Helen!
So it is 1:4 in dry volume... from http://www.reade.com/Particle_Briefings/spec_gra2.html the specific weight of granulated sugar is 0.85, so the correct ratio in weight is 1 part sugar and 4/0.85 parts water, or about 1:5 in weight. This helps! I have a precise kitchen scale, so doing it in weigt is easier for me.

Luca

I really have no idea about how to do it in weight. You can just take any container (a cup, bowl, etc.), fill it with sugar once, and then fill it with water four times, and mix all that together. It doesn't need to be so complicated! Remember that since sugar dissolves in water, you don't get five parts of volume when you add one part sugar to four parts water; in fact there isn't a noticeable increase in volume at this scale. I can (and have) pur the two cups of water in a two-cup container, and can still add the 1/2 cup sugar to the same container without overflowing.

I suppose you could weigh a half a cup of sugar and then weigh two cups of water and go from there, but I honestly don't see how this is easier than just filling a coffee mug once with sugar and four times with water and mixing it all in a pitcher!

Helen

 

[Tz'unun]

...so the correct ratio in weight is 1 part sugar and 4/0.85 parts water, or about 1:5 in weight. This helps! I have a precise kitchen scale, so doing it in weigt is easier for me.

You're stressing needlessly, Luca. There really isn't one "correct" ratio of sugar to water, because the sugar content of natural nectar varies widely from species to species. It even varies within each species and among different flowers on the same plant.

A survey of 255 hummingbird-pollinated species found that a significant majority (176) fell between 15% and 29% sugar w/w. This is consistent with the common recommendation of 3 to 5 parts water to one part sugar by volume (~24% w/w to ~15% w/w if you measure both sugar and water). Solutions on the weaker side are preferable in extremely hot, dry weather or to discourage bees, and those on the stronger side are preferable during migration and cold weather.

I realize that this imprecision can be hard to accept, having once traumatized an acquaintance whose professional background was in the "hard" sciences by just throwing some sugar and water in a pitcher, giving it a good stir, and refilling my feeders. ||

 

[pauld45]

As the other replies have stated: If you are determined to go the weight route, then measure a cup of sugar (granulated) and then measure 4 cups of water. This would be the amount to mix each time. For half, you would just use half as much of each, etc. I have caught myself before of filling a glass one fourth full of sugar and then trying to figure out how much water to add. Everyone uses the volume method because it is so easy.

 

[LucaPCP]

Doing it by weight is easy for me because I have a kitchen scale always on the counter.
So I simply set any container on the scale and zero it, pour sugar until 50g, add water till 300g, done.
No need to use any measuring container that then needs washing. I can directly pour stuff in the mixing container.

But I realize that you need a precise scale for this. I have it always on the kitchen counter because I do many many things by weight (pasta, rice, flower, butter, dough, ... you certainly cannot measure pasta by the cup! .

 

[aveschapines]

As the other replies have stated: If you are determined to go the weight route, then measure a cup of sugar (granulated) and then measure 4 cups of water. This would be the amount to mix each time. For half, you would just use half as much of each, etc. I have caught myself before of filling a glass one fourth full of sugar and then trying to figure out how much water to add. Everyone uses the volume method because it is so easy.

I have found that 1/2 cup sugar plus 2 cups water gives me 2 cups of nectar (the capacity of my feeder), so now I just measure out the sugar and add the water. I just bought a two-cup measuring pitcher that makes it all easy. Before I used a 1/2 liter yogurt cup, and I noticed that the nectar level wasn't appreciably different from the water level before I added the sugar.

Helen