Make Tipnut.com My Home Page
Email
RSS
Getting Ready for Hummingbirds
Flying Hummingbird & Flowers
Get ready, the hummingbirds are on their way! Why are hummingbirds popular? There’s something so charming about washing your dishes at the kitchen sink or sitting at a table and looking out the window to see a hummingbird a few inches away from you, hovering and feeding from a hanging flower basket or hummingbird feeder.
Hummingbirds are spotted in the southern U.S. as early as March as they migrate north. You can follow the ruby throated hummingbird migration each year by watching the Hummingbird Migration Map. If you’re way down south, the first half of March is normally when you want to get your hummingbird feeders up so you can attract them to your yard, the rest of us will be a little later (I’m looking at May).
Hummingbird Feeder Recipe
See this page. A cautionary note:
Please, do not put honey, Jell-O, brown sugar, fruit, or red food coloring in your feeder! Honey ferments rapidly when diluted with water and can kill hummingbirds. The effects of red dye have not been not scientifically tested, and it is not necessary to color the water to attract birds to your feeder. Further, there are unverified reports that red dye can cause tumors in hummingbirds; this may or may not be true, but why take the chance?
The Recipe:
1 part white cane sugar
4 parts waterStore unused syrup in refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Maintaining The Hummingbird Feeder
- Clean the hummingbird feeder each time you refill it by flushing well with hot water–do not use soap. Find more details for cleaning the feeder here.
Flowers That Attract Hummingbirds
Fuschia Plant
If a feeder is too high maintenance for you, try a nice hanging basket of bright red or deep pink fuschia–I’ve been lucky and it’s always worked for me!
More plant suggestions for a hummingbird garden: Attracting Hummingbirds.
For beginner gardeners, I’d recommend container gardening with petunias or Impatiens (or a mix of both!). I find them pretty low maintenance and hardy.
Good luck this year, I hope the hummingbirds find you and choose to hang around 
.
Originally published February 10, 2007
Don't Miss These Tips:
- Tips: Getting Your Garden Ready For Winter
- Teacup Bird Feeder Project: How To
- Get Rid Of Gnats: Tips & Remedies
Join Over 30052 Tipnut Subscribers and receive your daily fix of creative tips & ideas...
- Discover What's Neat On The Net With Featured Projects & How To's
- Get Crafty With The Latest Free Patterns & Tutorials
- Receive Tips For Homemaking, Cooking, Baking Plus Recipes Too!
Your privacy is respected (see No-Spam Policy)
You can unsubscribe at any time
You can also subscribe to TipNut by 
RSS
Thanks for this info. I would have put my feeders out in May, and I just found out that some have been seen nearby already! Cool.
I was so happy to see that you added the information about not using honey or red dye, they don`t need it. I love my hummies in the summer and it makes me so unhappy when people add all the stuff they don`t need, and could hurt them. Thank you for the correct info.
Debbie
Ohh I love Hummingbirds, we get them every year all around our front porch. They are amazing little birds! I need to get my feeders ready!!!
I just love hummingbirds. I was surprised to learn that bats will visit feeders too. We have bats so that may be why my one feeder gets empty quicker than the other. Thanks for the great information.
Californians need feeders up year ’round. An Allen’s hummingbird nest outside our kitchen window Christmas week and had a brood out of the nest by February. Another hummer moved into the vacated nest and is raising another pair just out of pinfeathers.
Hummingbirds love Morning Glorys too! They are very easy to grow.