My pops is a total green-thumb, and anything garden related is instinctual for him. I guess that trait skips a generation though, because I have a habit of loving my plants to death. I either drown them by overwatering, or fry them in what I consider a nice sunny spot, or strangle them in a small pot, or, or, or… My dad keeps trying teach me though, bless him.
Anyway, as well as being a gardening genius, daddy has a natural affinity for animals that frequent his green oasis. This includes hummingbirds, as we have sat back and counted as many as 15 hummingbirds feeding at his many feeders at one time. Yes, I know they are territorial – it’s actually kind of funny to watch them chase each other around.
Daddy swears it’s his recipe, and has agreed to share it with my lovely blog readers in the hopes that you all will have the same success. Here’s what you need:
My dad made it a point to tell me to use cane or granulated sugar only. No honey, no artificial sweeteners, no red food coloring, as all of these things can hurt the hummers.
step 1: For every cup of warm water, use 1/4 cup sugar. If you are following my Earth Day Hummingbird Feeder tutorial, I used 2 cups warm water and (2) 1/4 cups of sugar.
step 2: Stir the sugar into the warm water to dissolve it a bit. It’s ok if some granules still remain.
step 3: Put the water into the microwave for 1-2 minutes to completely dissolve the sugar.
step 4: You’ll know when the sugar has been dissolved enough when the water is relatively clear. Put your nectar mixture into the freezer to cool a bit.
step 5: Pour your cooled nectar mixture into your hummingbird feeder using a funnel.
Enjoy your feeder and your handmade nectar!! We know your local hummingbirds will. ^_-
We love bird watching on the other coast, in the NorthEast. The variety of birds is amazing.
I’m visiting from the Sundae Scoop. I hope that you can stop by my blog as well.
Thanks for sharing,
Laura
Hi Laura!! Thank you for your kind comments. I remember when my husband was stationed in Ft. Stewart in GA, and you’re absolutely right: the variety of birds is amazing!! Thank you also for your kind invitation to visit your blog – I’ll be taking you up on that shortly. ^_-
We use to have a humming bird feeder at our house. But we use to buy the nectar and it was soo expensive to refill all the time so we eventually took it down. Im going to have to get ours back out and try this. Just in time for spring. Thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for the kind words, Kara!! I’m thrilled to hear that it will help save some money so you can get back to enjoying your hummers again. ^_^
Our home is a registered wild life habitat. I have humming birds yr. round. Even in the snow they will come to the feeders. I use 1 cup of sugar and 4 cups water , heat and then stir till sugar is disolved.
Oh wow, Linda!! What I wouldn’t give to see your home – I bet it’s amazing living amongst a wild life habitat!! Forgive me if I’m wrong (my math skills are horrendous), but I think your and my nectar recipe is the same…? I use 1/4 cup sugar per every 1 cup water. Multiply that by four, and I believe you get 1 cup sugar to 4 cups water… right? lol, I seriously stink at math, so I could very well be wrong…
easy enough recipe. thank you!
It is absolutely my pleasure, Rose!!
Thanks for the hummingbird recipe I will make this today. ^_^
Mary,MI
You do such a good job with your tutorials!! One day I need to attempt this with my girls. We have a lot of birds in our area that would love this!! Now I will remember it because it is linked up on my D2F party!
I LOVE that picture of your hummingbird at the end. SO pretty! Thanks for sharing at oopsey daisy!