How to Make a Humming Bird Drink
It is so enjoyable to watch hummingbirds in your yard. Hummingbirds like to eat a diet that is mainly full of insects, and so they provide great insect control in your yard and garden. Hummingbirds will feed on sweet nectar from flowers or from hummingbird feeders. The key to making a hummingbird drink is to replicate the natural nectar hummingbirds find in the wild.
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Things You'll Need
- Hummingbird Feeder Water Liquid Dish Soap Mixing Bowl Large Cooking Pot 1 Cup Granulated Sugar Wooden Spoon 4 Drops of Red or Blue Food Coloring
Instructions
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Wash the hummingbird feeder with hot water and liquid dish soap, then rinse thoroughly and allow to air dry.
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2
Fill cooking pot with 4 cups of water. Turn on heat source to high heat. Bring water to a rolling boil. Turn off heat source.
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3
Put 1 cup of granulated sugar into the pot with the 4 cups water. Stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is completely dissolved. Let mixture cool to room temperature.
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4
Add four or five drops of red or blue food coloring to the sugar water mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon. You can leave out the food coloring if hummingbirds in your yard are naturally attracted to your feeder.
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5
Pour colored sugar water into hummingbird feeder. Hang feeder in appropriate place.
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References
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Comments
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slwilliamson
Aug 04, 2010
Red food coloring is mostly harmless in the small quantities humans consume, but hummingbirds can drink up to 5 times their weight in nectar or sugar water in a day. Giving them an artificially colored feeder solution would be like forcing someone to eat 180 packets of cherry Kool-Aid. A number of medical studies have found that such high dosages of red dyes can cause reproductive and behavioral problems and DNA damage that can lead to cancer. Coloring the feeder solution is unnatural and unnecessary, but if you insist on doing it please use only a dye-free fruit juice concentrate. -
jschiavoni
Jul 08, 2009
In hotter climates or during extreme heat hummers will dehydrate faster so it is recommended using 5 parts water to 1 part sugar - this is sufficient as hummers will still feed at flowers for natural nectar. Never use red food dye. Tie a red ribbon to feeder, attach a red silk flower or any red object. One person I know just stuck some bright orange ear plugs on the feeder with great success.
