How to Fill Your Hummingbird Feeder Properly

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By MizGreenJeans
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Fill Your Hummingbird Feeder Properly

Feeding hummingbirds is fun and rewarding, but you have to be sure you do it right so as to reduce the chance of disease and attracting pests to your feeders.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Hummingbird feeder
1 cup of sugar
4 cups of water
An electric teakettle or stovetop and pan.
Red food coloring

Step 1

Clean your hummingbird feeder well with soap and warm water before first use. Keeping the feeder clean is crucial to success here.
Step 2

When making nectar it is important that the water be boiled before mixing it with the sugar. You can do this one of two ways.
Step 3

1 cup white sugar

The first way is to boil the water in a saucepan on the stove, then stir the sugar in until it melts completely. This takes a while.
Step 4

Electric teakettle

An easier way is to use an electric teakettle (thanks Bere!) Fill the teakettle with slightly more than four cups of water (in case some boils off), and turn it on. A teakettle will heat up much faster than a stove element.
Step 5

When the water has boiled, pour it over the sugar in a heat safe bowl or pan. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.
Step 6

Red food coloring

Some people add food coloring to their nectar, others don't. If your feeder is already colored then you don't need to. Otherwise about ten to twelve drops of red food coloring will make it the right shade of red.
Step 7

When the nectar has cooled and had color added to it, pour it into your feeder and you're ready to go. Check the nectar every few days to make sure it hasn't gone bad, or that insects haven't gotten in and drowned. If that happens, change it.