crafter005

Thank you Suzanne for the instructions.

dsb38327

We had a small thunderstorm come through today so I took some photos of the birds playing. They didn't feed yesterday (our heat index was about 115). I saw them sitting in the trees but they barely fed. I put this water out yesterday morning. I took these photos this morning and this afternoon. I have from 30 to 50 birds. The highest count I saw in these photos was 13. Maybe by the end of the season I will get to show you all the feeder holes full of birds. If not, next year. These pictures make me feel like we have entered the birds private lives. I am going to put the picture number on the pictures. For the numbers in sequence you will know I was going click, click, click as fast as the camera would re-focus. The birds are in and out, they are so fast. Looks like the same birds but isn't necessarily the same one in each photo. I enjoy them and hope you will too. I welcome everyone to add their photos. We get different kind of birds depending on where we are. I am in awe of those of you who have seen their nest and their babies. Wonderful. Our water/sugar mix can be different also depending on where we are. 4water/1sugar is the standard. I am glad you guys told me to increase the sugar 5/1 when it is so hot because of the fermenting. The research I did was stearn about being sure the water is hot enough to dissolve the sugar completely. I have read that boiling is not necessary but those little bubbles make me feel good. I don't do a hard boil, I turn it off when I see the little bubbles, add my 4 cups of sugar and stir, stir, stir. Yes, I do mean 4 cups of sugar because I make 16 cups of water at a time. Last year I had to do it 3 and 4 times a day to keep up with the demand.
My feeders get washed every day when the birds are in and no later than the morning of the 3rd day if the juice is not being used. At least once a week I rest the feeders in a tub of water with 1/2cup of bleach in it. Give it an hour or so to work then use the hose sprayer to hose them down super good inside and out. I do not wash my feeders in the house because birds carry disease and mites. Just sayin. :lol:

JACRN

Ilive in KY. I finally took my feeder down. No hummingbirds.Then I look up and there is one hoovering around my wreath on the back door.It is full of red flowers, so Iput the feeder back up. We'll see. Two of my daughters always have a lot of them, but haven't this year either.

Suzanne57

I have several buzzing around but they won't share the feeders. If one is there, the other will chase it away before sipping. I even have the feeders on different ends of the house. If I had to mix the sugar water every day, I probably wouldn't boil it but 4 cups of solution lasts me about two weeks or so. I put about 2/3 to 3/4 cup in both feeders every other day and they still aren't empty. Maybe next year, I'll have more as this is the first year I've put up feeders.

Blue Bell

Dorothy,
I have 2 feeders and have lots of hummingbirds this year. But the past week or so, there have been bees/wasps at the feeders. Is there any way to discourage the bees? The hummers don't seem to mind them. We enjoy watching them.
You must be very busy keeping those feeders filled. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

dsb38327

I have no solution for the bees and wasps. Someone said they are attracted to a certain color (?yellow?) feeder holes. I have had white and yellow plugs on the feeder holes and have not noticed a difference one over the other. I am not bothered right now with bees and wasps but at times they have been so bad I get stung opening the feeders to clean them. I did find a solution for the ants and was happy for that. Where the birds don't mind the bees and wasps, they will not feed from sugar water that has a bug or ants in it.
My birds started coming in 'in force' yesterday (August 19). We had a 5" rain. They seem to always come and go before and just after a storm or large rain. They ate about 1 gallon of sugar water yesterday. The air was full of birds. It is very hard to get them in a photo but I will continue to try.
Sing out ladies and gentlemen. Tell us where the birds are.

JACRN

On the front page of our local paper the other day was a picture of a hummingbird nest with 2 babies in it. They were so cute .It was really neat. It looked like it had been built in some kind ofhanging porch ornament. Ilet the paper get away and didn't cut the picture out.

Bobbielinks

Great photo! I too love the hummingbirds. I have 5 feeders out and the little cuties eat a half gallon of sugarwater a day. The market has a sale on sugar this week (4 pounds bag for $2.17) so I stocked up as I was on my last bag from the last sale. I bought 6 bags so that should last well beyound the time the hummingbirds move on further south.

quilter2

Are your hummingbirds still around? The last time I saw any was 4 days ago, it seems early for them to leave.

Kooklabell

Wow!! I have two hummingbirds. They don't play nice in "sandbox". I have two feeders and they fight all the time! If one gets empty, the boy sits on my clothes line and tweets at me! Pushy little devils. :-)