bird feeders

[jennlin]

i bought a hummingbird feeder, and i'm pretty excited about it...except that i don't have any hummingbirds. i mean..i didn't expect it to be instant or anything, but i see the next door neighbor had a feeder, so i assumed there'd be birds in this area as well. i'm reading online about how to attract hummingbirds, and everything says to clean and wash my feeders every 3 days. that just seems excessive to me......does anybody else actually do this?

part 2) regular bird (seed) feeders. i used to have these, but they are so messy with the seed droppings, and then sprouts of new weeds, etc......this is why i chose to do hummingbird instead....but some of the articles i'm reading say to have regular bird feeders also to attract them.... i just don't want the mess.

[jamer]

What kind of food are you using for hummingbird? I've found they don't like store bought kind, I just mix sugar and water for a syrup and they eat that up. As for regular bird feeders you can buy seeds that don't sprout. They are more expensive of course.

[jennlin]

Apr 17, 2013 11:13:12 GMT -5 jamer said:

What kind of food are you using for hummingbird? I've found they don't like store bought kind, I just mix sugar and water for a syrup and they eat that up. As for regular bird feeders you can buy seeds that don't sprout. They are more expensive of course.

i used the store bought one...i guess i will do the sugar/water mix i find online. do you put coloring in it?

how much more expensive is the sproutless kind? like a little more expensive, or a lot more expensive?

[jamer]

I usually put a couple drops of red food coloring in it so they know something is in there (maybe its more for my benefit, I don't know). I think the non sprouting kind was $11 a bag versus $8. So not a huge difference. It took the birds awhile to find mine too. I thought maybe they didn't like the special seeds but eating it like crazy now.

As for the hummingbird food all I do is put water is a bowl and keep adding sugar til it's really thick and takes a long time to dissolve. I just keep slowly adding sugar over 24 hours or so. Super easy

[catbus]

I also don't buy hummingbird nectar. Just make a super-saturated simple syrup. Takes ten minutes, plus cooling time.

Yeah, you should empty and clean the feeder regularly, but IME weekly is fine. I would never keep up with more often!

Also! Do the birds a favor and keep up with the nectar through all the seasons. Many people put out their feeder in spring and summer, but then neglect to fill it during the cooler months. Hummingbirds need to eat year-round.

howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com/homemade_hummingbird_food.htm

[niq]

The birds manage to eat everything in our feeder about every 3-4 days, so we end up filling/cleaning it that often anyway.

We just sweep the seed husks into the flower beds and use them as filler/compost/fertilizer. Also the racoons come and eat a bunch of it. Could you get an electric leaf blower and use that to push the waste somewhere where you didn't care about it?

[jennlin]

next week we'll add "making hummingbird nectar" to my crunchy list.

how often do you guys refill your feeders? i have 2 16oz feeders.

niq, no snowblower option for me since the underneath both my trellises are dirt/flowerbeds. i'm thinking of buying a bird feeder stand/hook and hanging it over the patio deck.