what sugar to use for... (1 Viewer)

[ebtammy]

I need to know if I should use regular white cane sugar or raw sugar, [that still has the molasses is it], to make hummingbird nectar.
any good recipees?

 

[KC Foggin]

Hi ebtammy.

Cane sugar is fine. One part sugar to 4 parts water and no coloring added at all.

 

[Kits]

Aren't you lucky to have hummingbirds? My mother used to live in California and I used to love to watch the hummingbirds at her feeder when we went to visit. The closest we get here is a hummingbird moth. :bounce:

 

[capecodguy]

I need to know if I should use regular white cane sugar or raw sugar, [that still has the molasses is it], to make hummingbird nectar.
any good recipees?

I use a mixture of 2 parts water to one part sugar. No Boiling. just mix and use! I find replacing it at least weekly does the trick. (Note, The orioles love it too)

 

[craig whitmore]

I need to know if I should use regular white cane sugar or raw sugar, [that still has the molasses is it], to make hummingbird nectar.
any good recipees?

Hi: Been using 4/1 water/cane sugar for 50 years without a single complaint

Craig

 

[ebtammy]

thanks all!

thanks for the help,
tam

 

[Curtis Croulet]

I use a mixture of 2 parts water to one part sugar. No Boiling. just mix and use! I find replacing it at least weekly does the trick. (Note, The orioles love it too)

Many experts will raise an eyebrow at so strong a concentration, though some of them use a 3:1 solution during cool months. I just use 4:1 all the time. I have let my feeders go without change as long as four or five days during the cool part of the year, but from about April through mid-November I change the feeders every two days.

Those who know recommend pure cane sugar, simply because the birds supposedly prefer it. In the past I have, at times, used store-brand white sugar which doesn't say whether it's cane or beet. I assume it's beet, but I never saw any effect on the numbers of birds visiting the feeders. You don't want to use brown sugar, which I believe contains iron, which can cause problems.

Institutions that maintain live hummingbird exhibits usually use a concentrate from Germany that contains all the necessary nutrients. That way they don't have to raise hordes of Drosophila for the birds. In a notorious incident, a batch of this stuff that had too much iron (the packaged concentrate was bad) killed an entire exhibit of hummingbirds at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. When I visited Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, FL, two years ago, I noticed a keeper pushing a cart with feeders through one of the hummingbird free-flight cages, and I asked him about it. They replace their feeders with fresh ones twice daily. They use dozens of little one-port Perky-Pet feeders.