I too live in TN how forturnate we are to live in their migratory path.......I do not have hundreds, but I have around 50. Yep have to fill my feeders daily. Out front porch is long, as you can see on my avatar, so we chose to hang all feeders or I should say most of them from one end to the other on the porch. They do not seem to care that we have our coffee and "watch" them. My husband hung one feeder in the middle of the porch in front of my kitchen window. What a great idea. Now all the front windows have feeders. They are a joy.

lovely. so nice of you to take care of them. More will come

They have been slower in coming this year. I three regulars and enjoy watching them. Some years we have a lot more.

A few of my hummer pictures

And a few finches

How cool is that...we only have one or two show up every week.

I love to watch humming birds. Thank you, and God bless.

I love my humming birds but I don't have as many as Dorothy. Mine sometimes scold me if they want to eat and I'm out there. When I spent more time with them they would come up to me within a couple of feet and just look at me.

Dorothy, I read a website that said that if you make your own nectar (4 parts water to 1 part sugar) you need to boil it first or the hummers can get sick. Also stated that you should wash your feeder one a week, less if the weather is hot.

I was trying to find this website but I have another one that has some very interesting information about the humming bird. http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/hu....php#solutions

I can't imagine all those feeders. I have enough just trying to keep my two 32 oz feeders going. Thanks for the pictures.

Hi Suzanne:
I've been wanting to do my sugar water in the microwave too. How much to you put in and how long to you nuke it for? I wash my out every couple of days when it's hot too and I don't fill them full either because of the washing. I posted this elsewhere but this site has some wonderful information that you can probably use so here it is again. It seems that the proportion needs to be different in winter. http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/hu....php#solutions

I usually let it boil about 1 min after it starts bubbling. Boiling it too long changes the concentration which is bad for the birds. I've read of them becoming dehydrated if it's too concentrated. I've even read about using a 5 to 1 ratio if the climate is really dry.

Thank you Suzanne for the instructions.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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. :-)

My hummingbirds have arrived finally. i love to watch them.

Good lord, woman, do you think you have enough feeders? LOL

I read that if you use a 1:4 ratio of sugar to water, no stronger, you won't have problems with wasps. That's the ration I use and I don't have wasp problems at my feeder.

We have 4 feeders up and have gone from just a few birds to dozens of birds - just swarming in birds here in southern MO. Guess they have come from the north? Filling up 4 feeders every day now!

STill only 2 or 3 at a time yet. very few hummers so far this summer.

:lol: :lol: No. I do not have enough feeders. Honestly, I do not. I need 10 to 20 more. I get them over time, year end closeouts. I had to retire 4 feeders this year. I like to have enough that I can hang clean water and let the dirty ones set in bleach water long enough to clean and sanitize. I have two feeder poles up now and will need to add a third one if all the birds arrive. My busiest year I fed a gallon for breakfast, another gallon for lunch and a 3rd gallon for dinner. If they all come I will be using 25lbs of sugar a week. This year I think I am going to be shy about 100 birds.
I am not going to get anymore of the glass feeders. The small plastic ones are perfect. Much easier to wash, have more feeder holes and hold the same amount of sugar water as the glass feeders. I am feeding just under 2 gallons of sugar water a day now. I guess at 75 to 100 birds per gallon of water. If you have ever seen a bee hive that is what our yard looks like right now. Sitting by the feeders to take the photos sounds like I am in a wind tunnel. We had another group come in today. They were only about an inch long. Babies? I keep trying to get photos but I am not skilled and the birds disappear into the greenery.
I would love to have others add their photos to my post. Please feel free to.

THAT IS SO AMAZING.

I can only dream to ever have this many Hummers visit us here! WOW! So far we have only had 3 or 4 birds this Season. And they disappeared when the temps began to hover around 100. Now I had 2 birds return to the feeders today. Since it has cooled down, I hope they will stay for awhile. I just love to watch them. You are very fortunate to have so many visit you!

dsb...you have all the hummers at your place! Share with the rest of us!
I have 4 that have finally found my 2 feeders. I had the feeders up because the neighbors said they were around, but hadn't seen any. So, I went to the dollar store and bought some fake roses and put them on the pole. Within days, I had hummers flying around, trying to feed off the flowers, but realized nothing was there. They will now feed from the feeders. They don't eat much since I think there are others in the area feeding them also, so I go thru about 1/2 gallon a week. I bought the food from Walmart, but will start making my own once they start coming more. Hubby says that next year we will put the feeders out early to attract them to ours and not the neighbors lol
I love sitting outside watching them chase each other, just too funny!

>>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.<<


I have 2 feeders. My one feeder gets those tiny black sweat bees in it all the time & my Hummers eat from it. There are times I fill the feeder & in minutes it's got as many as 20-50 sweat bees floating in it. The hummers don't seem to mind. We also get a few yellowjackets on the feeders & the hummers land right next to them & feed. My feeders are glass with a copper metal base & top. They have metal red flowers. There's no yellow on my feeders. Here in PA our Hummers may stay until October, depending on the weather & available food. Last week they were hitting the feeders heavy, this week it's been much cooler, so they haven't been eating as much. It's to warm up again, so they may eat more. Most of the flowers & hanging plants burned up in July, early August this year, but my hanging Fuschia are still putting out some flowers. I let my feeders up as long as I see they are goign down some. Usually into October, just in case any are still here. We've had reports of a few staying all winter, living under car ports, where home owners leave a light on for them to stay warm & a feeder all winter.

Besides the Hummers I am blessed with a Purple Martin colony each year :).

Aug 27: morning
I don't know how they pick and choose but I feel they do. My mother lived in the country (farmland). She had hundreds of them and no one else did. When we lived 2 hours from here we had hundreds of them and no one else did. Now, here we have hundreds of them and the neighbors do not. The first year we had a few. I had my feeder poles at the end of the house and near the house. I kept moving them until they were almost in the center of the yard (open to the sky rather than under the massive trees we have here). Once they were in the center of the yard the birds started coming in flocks. I have gradually moved the feeder poles. The hummingbirds seem to have radar. I had no feeders on the little pole when they started coming in June. By the end of June I had birds ignoring the filled feeders and buzzing the empty feeder pole hooks. I felt like that was birds from last year that had fed from that feeder pole.
I would enjoy the purple martins. We have enough bugs for them. At our last house we had barn swallows on the front porch. I really enjoyed that and miss them. They are here but we don't have any.
Feel free to add your photos to my post.

Well our migratory birds just got here yesterday and the day before. We finally have a bee hive at out feeders. They dive bomb my window when the feeders are empty lol I tell my DIL and she refills them. keeps her busy.

Funny how they come and go so fast. You get to know (almost) when to expect them. If it is going to thunderstorm I make a couple gallons of water so I am prepared. They come in wet and hungry! You guys just had rainy weather. They also leave without saying goodbye so sometimes I am left with extra water. Mine started tanking up this morning. I think some of them also left. I have read they double their weight before they go. This morning they weren't playing, they were eating.
Did you get any photos?

Saturday. August 28, 2010. They are feeding heavy, getting ready to leave. There are birds everywhere, these are just what I could get in the photos. Some of the birds left last night or this morning. I have about 1/2 as many today as I did yesterday morning. The ones that are still here are eating as much if not more than they were all together yesterday morning.

I just love these photos!! All the birds getting their tummies full for their trip. Thanks for feeding them!!
We get two per year. I get pictures--but what a photo shoot you get!!

I thought our 2qts a day was bad! And sugar at $2.28 for a 4lb bag!

I love your pictures, Dorothy. I have never seen a live hummingbird. I have cardinals, mockingbirds and a blue jay which I love. Do you ever have any trouble with squirrels getting in the feeders? I feed our squirrels but no matter how much I feed them they end up in the bird feeders. I love seeing the animals eat together like a big ole picnic! The squirrels and doves eat together well and the cardinals are always so polite.

I know your birds must be beautiful. They are very vocal. We really don't have any trouble with our squirrels and we have a zillion. They will climb the pole to any bird seed feeder we have up but they never try to climb the hummingbird feeder poles. I think their sense of smell must be very good. Wish you were here, you could enjoy the hummingbirds. My husband just said it compares to seeing hornets swarming a hornets nest.

We have a squirrel that comes and eats at the feeders, we have so many doves and cardinals. I try to chase the squirrel away, he's a little pig. I don't know what happened to my hummingbirds, not 1 in about a week, a couple of days ago I saw one fly up and look at the feeder and fly away. It seems early for them to leave.

This has been an off year for our birds too. I am down at least 100 birds from previous years. It is funny how you get used to knowing things about them. We have noticed:
They come and go before and after a thunderstorm or long rain.
They come in groups, hungry and tired.
The birds in the group look alike. Bigger birds. Small birds. The ones with the red throat. The ones with the yellowish tint to their feathers. The long, slender, brilliant green ones.
They can be here and gone an hour later.
You think they have gone and they come in for the night feeding before they go to roost.
Question: Last night when they were going to roost the air was filled with a sound that would make you think it was crickets. I have noticed this before and never gave it a thought. I think it was the hummers going into their trance state. The sound was in the trees they were going into for roost.
Nikkilu, Jolo, Lady-T, will you listen for this sound when they go to roost. Please let me know what you think. Everyone help me listen, I just don't know if you will hear it if you don't have lots of birds. Please let me know.
It is beginning to rain.