Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best Hummingbird bird mix

I forgot what the best mix of sugar was, for the Hummers?

4 parts water. 1 part sugar. (Real Sugar)

Apparently you're not supposed to put any food coloring in either. I "forget" once in a while and add a single drop.

How to mix Hummie food

Always use regular cane (table) sugar. Not powdered, and never honey or anything else. Also, you do not need to add red coloring. The birds will find your feeder just fine. So…

For four cups of food (change the numbers if you are mixing more or less than four cups. I usually mix eight.)

One cup of sugar
One cup of boiling water

Put the sugar in a container large enough to hold your final amount of four cups. Pour in one cup of boiling water and stir until the mix is clear with no sugar crystals visible (it won’t take long.) The boiling water sterilizes any nasties in the sugar and helps dissolve it rapidly.

Now add three cups of cold water to make up the full four cups level. Fill your feeders.

If you have syrup left over, store it in a glass or plastic bottle in the fridge. It will keep for two weeks in the fridge – but you’ll probably use it sooner.

When you refill feeders, look very carefully for any sign of black mold – which can be fatal to hummingbirds. Clean thoroughly with a mild bleach solution and a soft brush. Rinse very well before refilling with syrup. If you cannot completely disassemble your feeders to get inside, throw them away and get feeders that allow for complete disassembly and cleaning. I recommend and use feeders by Best-1

https://www.hummingbirdsplus.org/feeders/best-1/



Wasp and bee tip: if you have trouble with wasps on your feeders, put a little bit of Tea Tree Oil on a cotton ball or Q-tip and wipe that around the feeding holes on the feeder. Hummies don’t mind it at all, but wasps and bees can’t stand it. It isn’t toxic, but it drives them away.

That's all we do and they are fine with it.

Thanks guys always think of Mickey, this time of year!

Thanks for that hummingbird feeder link. Just what I was looking for.

The 1-4 mix is standard. But many places tell you to boil the whole mix. That's unnecessary and it takes forever to cool enough to pour it into the feeders. Using one part boiling water to mix and then three more cold water to dilute solves that while still giving enough heat to sterilize the sugar. You can use the diluted syrup immediately.

The important thing is to get rid of any black mold. Bleach water or an alcohol rinse plus brushing is vital. Feeders that can't be completely taken apart will harbor mold.

That’s all we’ve ever done. 1/2 cup sugar to 2 cups water. Rock on. No food coloring per the bird nerds at the feeder store in St. Cloud.

I do 3-1

Good grief dude

Just post

“4 to 1”

I do a 1 to 1 mix.All my hummers have a sugar jag on.

I grow flowers they like.