Is there anyone who doesn’t get so excited to see the little hummingbirds hovering around a feeder outside their kitchen window or hanging from the rafters holding up your patio roof? Seeing the little flicker of the tiny birds brings up so many feelings of cute, love, and excitement – at least in me. We all have this feeling and one way to make this happen is to feed them. Easy, peasy, right? Well, you’d think so but there are some things you need to know.
What You Need to Know
One of the biggest mistakes made when it comes to food for your hummingbird feeder is the red dye. Yes, many of the feeds you find at the stores are red. First, red dye is not necessary to attract hummingbirds and it could actually be harmful to them. While yes, hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, flower nectar is actually clear. If you are concerned, about attracting the little flickering cuties, use a red feeder.
Why not the red dye? First, you can’t know how much dye is actually in a store-bought feed or what the dye is made from. Red Dye #40, for example, is an artificial colorant created from petrochemicals and has been shown to be toxic, both carcinogenic and mutagenic, to rats and mice. What could it do to a little hummingbird?
Also, store-bought hummingbird food is a waste of money. It’s so easy to make in your own kitchen and it literally costs pennies. Let’s move on and talk about what that looks like.
Hummingbird Food Recipe
This recipe makes between 3-4 cups food.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3-4 cups water
Directions
- In a saucepan, bring your water to a boil.
- Add the sugar, stir, and allow to cool letting all of the sugar dissolve.
- Once the food is at room temperature, you are done.
That’s it! Easy peasy.
What Not to Do
As noted above, do not use any colorant of any kind! It could harm the birds.
Do not use anything except white cane sugar. Why? The nutrients in sugars can be harmful to birds. Weird, right? They are not human, so please do not use honey, raw sugar, brown sugar, molasses, or powdered sugar. Only pure cane white sugar.
This recipe is basically a very simple simple syrup. It can be kept in your refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. However, do not fill the feeder expecting to only fill it once a month. Sugar does mold in warm weather and large amounts of water sitting outside is just asking for bacteria and other nasties to build up. Plan to fill your feeder at least every 1o days. Make sure you wash it out with soap and water monthly to keep it from getting sticky and gross.
Watch for mold. As I noted above, sugar does mold.
Other birds getting into your feed? No problem. This is safe for all birds. You might just have to fill it more often and you get to enjoy other new friends as well.
Closing Thoughts
If you love hummingbirds as much as I do, you will love the show this recipe will bring. So simple but so useful and healthy for these colorful birds.
If you would like to see more recipes, go ahead and check out this link.
About the Author
A late bloomer in the writing industry, Christle Hart has just joined the world of writing as a published Author, poet, and content writer. As a teacher for 20 years, she has made a smooth transition from teaching writing to publishing her own work and is excited to be doing so. You can even check out her first novel which has finally been released.
Check back here for more of her articles focused on gardening, cooking, horoscopes, movies and TV, gaming and so many other passions. You can find her on her website where her blog, The Nook, is also located. You can also find her on Facebook.
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