Hummingbird
I put this feeder out 2 days ago. No customers so far. How long does it take the birds to discover the feeder?
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We've had our five feeders up for over two months. I think we had 'em up before the little guys were back from wherever they wintered so I'm not sure how long it'll take 'em to find yours. We have found that we get more when we don't color the fluid. We use a red tinted bottle and some days we'll have 7 or 8 of the little guys swarming each feeder.
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It’s best to have it set up before they arrive. Where we live in western Illinois they usually show up around the 20th of April. The males will arrive first the females 10 to 14 days later. The males do not help with the building of the nest or in feeding the young, kind of like a lot of fathers today, BUMS. They will have two clutches a summer. You can tell when their feeding their young or getting ready to leave, for us that’s around end of September, they will be using the feeder a lot. Right now we’re going through about 4 cups of food a day. We have window mounted feeders on are bay window. After a while they get so use to you when changing feeders you will think they’re going to take it away from you by force. They are a hoot.
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The birds do not like some of those commercial foods. You may have had a few visitors who tasted and didn't come back.
The best food for them is simple cane sugar. Mix it one part sugar to three or four parts water. I use four in the hot days because they need more water then. The easiest way to make it is as follows:
Measure one cup of sugar into a glass or plastic bowl. Pour in one cup of boiling water. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Now add three cups of cold water. The mix is now cool enough to use immediately. Store any remaining syrup in a closed container, in the fridge. Adjust the numbers if you are making more than one quart at a time.
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The back side of my 3 story A-frame Mtn Chalet, is mostly all windows. It looks out over our Mtn pond and Mtns/woods. My neighbor/buddy has been feeding the birds for years. Lot's come and go.
My living room couch and chairs are right by the back windows, I am constantly watching birds come and go. Unfortunately, my back windows are bird killers. Birds fly in to them on a regular basis. Maybe 10 small green hummingbirds over the years.
Hummingbirds, being highly territorial, will fly up to the windows, see their reflection and hover there for a while. It is very interesting to watch them up close, when they do this. I find humminbirds fascinating.
I always hate to have to pick one up off the back deck when they ram it at full speed.
Once had a large Pileated Woodpecker ram the window. (Very loud bang/thud.) Luckily he only knocked himself senseless and he flew off to the trees after a bit.
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Rocky nailed it, that is the best formula. We use filtered water, but if the chlorine is heavy, it will work. Dump the red dye, they don't care. Our bottles are clear, easy to clean and have red bases. If you just put up the bottle, it will take a while for them to locate it. Once they know it they will be back next year. Ours hit early April, about the 10th or 12th. We also have orioles, ladderback woodpeckers and occasionally house finches feed at ours. Bees and wasps too, especially late in the season. Leave the feeder up for at least a couple of weeks after you think they are gone, to help any late migrants. It is best to empty, clean and refill the feeders every three days to minimize bacterial growth in the sugar water.
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The way this feeder is built, you have to turn it upside down to add the sugar water. So, every time you refill it you have to dump out all existing fluid, as a means of minimizing bacterial growth.
I will try the sugar water trick Rocky. Hummingbird water at Lowes is expensive.
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He Dog also nailed it. Do NOT believe that old story about taking your feeders down early to "force them to migrate". All you are doing is making them leave with empty gas tanks. Plus, you want to help the ones passing through to refuel. I leave mine up until early October, or the first hard frost.
If you use boiling water to initially dissolve the sugar, you not only get a quicker dissolve but also kill any lurking mold or bacteria that's in the sugar - and there are both.
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Wire does the same thing, ans it's nice to help out our beautiful little feathered friends...
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I bet you see a remarkable change, allen.
toad, you meant to type "wife" didn't ya?
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toad67: 30117204102555/comments/-1
Wire does the same thing, ans it's nice to help out our beautiful little feathered friends...
Rocky Raab: 30117204102555/comments/-1
I bet you see a remarkable change, allen.
toad, you meant to type "wife" didn't ya?
I was thinking Toad was talking about using a wire to clean out those tiny feeder holes! 🙂
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We put up our feeders a couple of months ago. We use the clear cane sugar water. We always have Hummers pretty much as soon as they are back from where they winter.
They find our feeders quickly because my wife plants so many flowers. They come for the flowers and find the feeders.
LOVE Hummers!!!
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I don't use feeders but always plant scores of bright colored upright fuchsia's, gladiolas, and nasturtiums that produce a lot of nectar. We get a lot of hummer's here!
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Most folks don't know it, but the bulk of a hummie's diet is actually insects like gnats and mosquitoes, followed by pollen and nectar. They catch 'em in midair.
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Allen, you need not only to dump and refill, but clean feeders between fills. Feeders like yours with narrow necks are harder to clean, but soap a d water with a brush that will fit the bottle neck will do the job. For ease of cleaning we use feeders with wide mouths, two-part feeder bases and a brush made for cleaning wide mouthed water bottles from REI. We have 4 feeders out most of the hummingbird year, and have 8 bottles to make rotating and cleaning easy.
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Heck we just hold out our hand and they fly right to us.
just kidding. This little guy got caught in our garage and would not fly out. He finally tuckered out and perched on a wire in the garage and I got him out. He would not fly away for quite some time so I put him in her hand and went and got our feeder down for him. He eventually got his second wind and flew off.
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Yes, I meant wife.....😞
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Want to attract hummingbirds plant some cotton 😊, they love the cotton blooms and swarm the fields all day.......just ask any crop-duster. There's no telling how many 5 gal. buckets of birds I've filled up at the end of the day that had lodged up in the engine cylinders / cowling.
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Neo-We have that same feeder. How often do you clean it?
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Asop, clean no less often than every three days.
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asop: 30117204102555/comments/-1
Neo-We have that same feeder. How often do you clean it?
Not as often as He Dog says to! We usually clean it when it's time to re-fill. I'm guessin' every 10 days or so. My wife has kinda decided the humming birds are her little buddies so she does most of the work with them. I just hang 'em where she tells me!
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Rocky, Thanks for all the info. I didn't know any of that. I'm going to dump my feeders out this morning, and start over with your suggestions. The insects are bad where I live, back in the pines. The bats do an okay job, but maybe drawing the hummingbirds back in, will help. They seem to have disappeared over the last two summers. I can't figure out why. Oakie
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Animals follow their food. Hummies in particular burn so many calories that they will abandon any locale where they'd have to work too hard to get enough to eat for themselves and their chicks. Hummies need insects for protein and nectar for carbs. A lesser requirement is nesting. Both locations and nest materials - but that's farther down on their checklist.
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My wife puts out several hummingbird federal every year she loves to watch them
I have read more than a few times we should be glad their not the size of eagles or we would be in trouble as aggressive and tertorial as they are
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Just the other day, I read they are all a few hours from death if not getting fed.
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I attract the humming birds with some nice steak sandwiches and they appreciate it a lot.
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Mr. Perfect: 30117204102555/comments/-1
I attract the humming birds with some nice steak sandwiches and they appreciate it a lot.
😖
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Do not irritate the tiny little dinosaurs, or they'll kick jurassic.
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I saw a hummingbird come to the feeder this evening. He took one big sip and flew off.
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That was after switching to sugar water? If so, he'll be back.
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If you stand by the feeder wearing a hat covered with silk flowers, he will come back even sooner. Post a photo.
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