Just a 'few' left ....
 

My parents had swarms of them this year, too. Dad kept 3 - 4 feeders going all the time and had to refill twice every day. The birds get very demanding. When one feeder is empty, they will buzz around Dad's head while he reads on the porch.

Wow that is a lot of hummers, we had some here but of course not that many here in WI. They are gone from here too!! :( Love to watch them.

All that sugar!
Why do hummers love this sugar water, I wonder? Do they ever get diabetes?? Or some similar bird disease?
They are so interesting.
Jan in VA

I love your video!! I love the hummers but living in town I only see a couple at a time, it seems. I go to my sister's house sometimes to watch theirs (smaller town) and they always have several - but nothing like yours!

Like a swarm of bees.

We have them here from about middle of April to middle of October. When the days get less than 12 hours of light they move on. We have birds stopping by on their way to warmer climates. The baby woodpeckers, ant and bees get into my feeders, I finally stopped filling them. I love to feed them and buy the red humming bird food with vitamins and mineral in it. I don't think anyting could survive very long just drinking sugar water.

Spectacular! I watched some of your other videos that you posted about your hummingbirds. WOW!

lady t that video was amazing wish I had them here we see one every now and then

Our hummers live here year-round, and I am so thankful for that. Some days are just so gloomy and it cheers me up to watch them. I had to rescue one last year, though. His little feet froze to the feeder, I was walking up to the door and he was flapping his wings like crazy, trying to fly away. So I held my finger to the bottom of the feeder under his feet and warmed it. After about 20 seconds he flew away. I noticed after that, he didn't stand at the feeder anymore, he hovered. Lol.

I'm Wish we had that many! Most I've ever seen was 3. I live about 25 miles N. of Seattle WA. They stay year around or the females do, I don't think its the Males I see in the Cold! 'Anna's Humming birds' are what we have here most often. I make my Sugar water stronger in the winter so it won't freeze up! Works great and its good for the Birds too gives them More Energy for the Cold weather.:)

Thanks for sharing, that's amazing!

Beautiful. And I am thrilled when I see one. :)

Where do you buy your feeders that have so many holes? Ours only have 6 holes and birds wait in line to eat. I bought 25lb of sugar yesterday and most of it is for the birds.

Hi - I have heard it is NOT a good idea to deviate from the 1 to 4 ratio of sugar to water when making hummingbird food.

PS - what ever happened to the lady from TN who posted pics of all her hummingbirds? I think her name was Dorothy?? She had hummers as her avatar.

Well, Jan, the hummers never stop moving and they require many, many calories per hour! We love them calling to us to refill their feeders. They hover in front of our porch windows and "fuss" at us. Lovely to watch.

My MIL has a hummingbird feeder and gets a few.....by that I mean 3 or 4 a day.......yours is amazing. I've seen one on my "hummingbird" bush that I planted to attract hummingbirds just this year. They are so pretty.

We feed hummers too! I live in western KY, so they are plentiful. I make up the food and store it in milk jugs in the refrigerator. The hummingbird website says to not feed the red stuff, but to make your own 1 pt. sugar to 4 pts. water. It does not need to be boiled anymore. We were going through a gallon a day. My hummers will not share though. There's always a dominant one who tries to chase off the others. I always keep them up until a month has gone by without seeing any. They also eat insects, but because their metabolism is so high, they require sugar water or nectar from flowers for energy. If you start to feed them and discontinue, they will die because they are dependent on your feeder.

we also live in Iowa but did not have very many hummers do you have a secret to attract them??? It was so hot here I think that is why we did not have only a couple.

Thanks for sharing your hummingbirds with us. I have many this year but not as many as you. I was making a quart and a half a day. Only have a few left now.

By the way, does anyone know why hummingbirds hum?????

They don't know the words!

We don't have any hummers in our area but I make home made wheat bread for our birds. We do have blackbirds (who like to soak their bread in the birdbath), Chickadees, Sparrows, and Robins. The Robins don't care for the bread but they do like raisins. We enjoy watching them.

The main thing is to keep their 'juice' fresh. Especially in hot weather.
In hot weather it needs changed OFTEN (every other day). Cooler days it will not sour as quickly (maybe 3-4 days)
We also keep their feeders cleaned with hot soapy water (make sure they are rinsed good)
and the little flower ports scrubbed with a small brush.
When we first started seeing hummingbirds here we only had a few, then every year it just keeps incresing.
The same birds will return to your area every year. Including the ones that hatched/fledged there.
We NEVER use store bought nectar. We make our own sugar water. 1 cup sugar per quart of water.
We add a drop or two of food coloring only for our benefit. It is not necessary. They will drink it clear.
We add because it makes it easier to see when the feeders are getting low.

During the peak of the season this year we had twelve (12) feeders hanging, and was refilling DAILY!
Sometimes it felt like that's all I got done in a day was wash bottles and feed birds! lol
But we get so much enjoyment out of them it is worth it!

We estimate how many birds we get by the amount of juice we go through.
Hummingbirds weigh approx. 1/8 oz. And they will eat anywhere from half (1/2) to eight (8) times its body weight a day.
On our peak feeding this year we were going through 2-2.5 gallons a day (288 oz)
[do the math on that one!]
I wonder what next year will be like!!! ((yikes))

We usually buy them at our local Farm Supply store for $12.99 but just recently found the same ones online
for an EXCELLENT price! (These are the only style feeders we use)
We've tried different styles but our birds seem to like these best (and the do NOT like plastic feeders)

http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/pro...px?sku=8325706

We usually do land office business as our hummingbird feeder but this year we only had a few. I don't know if it was the weather or what...

I loved watching the video, there are so many it looks like insects! and they all seem to get along. At the end here we had 5, all females, and boy did they fight. I never knew females would be so aggressive.

Very cool video! We have a few that come around and lost a few about a month ago, when we had a hailstorm. Some of our neighbors said they had dead birds in their yard. The birds have been making a comeback since then.

Never saw one here in WI this year. In WI there are 4 species, but mainly only 2 are commonly seen-the Ruby throated and the Rufous. And of those 2, the Rufous Hummingbird comes around every 3-5 years. Even the neighbors that have a yard of feeders have seen very few. Maybe it was the long dry heat of the season this year? It appears they are thriving across our border in Iowa!

I love the hummers but living in town I only see a couple at a time and this year didn't see any. I just got bees in our sugar water.

We have as many as you have in your video. We've only lived here two summers and both blessed us with swarms of the little fellows. My DH prepares the water and feeds them and he has a full-time job doing it. He goes through at least 4 4lb bags of sugar a week. They should be leaving soon, but our temps are still in the 90s.

We've seen a decline in the past week. I think most of "our" birds are gone and what we have now are 'transients' from further north passing through.
I know what you mean about a full time job!
And the sugar!! @ 2.29 for a 4lb. bag - at the end of the season it really adds up.
Last year we found sugar on sale for $1.59 a 4lb bag and REALLY stocked up!

Thanks for the video - it's delightful! I wonder why there were so many more than usual? I spend the winter in Tucson, which is also on a hummingbird migration path. I wonder if we'll get more than usual?

Are they ruby throated hummers? That's the kind we get here in Mass. They do nothing but fight over the feeder and chase each other away. I put up two feeders, and even that wasn't enough to satisfy four birds. They would spend all their time defending two feeders instead of just one. It amazes me that the species survives with that lack of cooperation.

I saw a couple today. They are also going to my mandevilla plant, it is full of red flowers now. They temperature has been dropping down to the low 50's at night, so don't know how much longer they will be here. I had the most ever this year. Just love watching them.

Wow! I don't think I've ever seen that many humming birds in one spot before!

We have them around here, but I'll see 2, maybe 3 per day tops. We have a lot of doves around here though, I love to hear them cooing. And I live (literally) at the edge of the suburbs; there's a hay farm across the street and we have lots of red tailed hawks hunting for mice over there - such beautiful birds and I'm glad they keep the mouse population down! Maybe the hawks scare off the smaller birds? I don't know. I have seen a family of quail go hustling through our front yard before too. Makes me very glad I insisted on having indoor-only cats! They hate being stuck indoors (both are rescues and used to being outside) but I couldn't bear to have them our there murdering all the local birds!