Use this hummingbird nectar food recipe for quick, easy hummingbird food.
This easy hummingbird nectar food recipe requires only two ingredients that can be found in your kitchen right now…tap water and sugar.
The sugar is white granulated table sugar that you sprinkle on your breakfast cereal. Don’t use brown sugar, honey, sugar substitutes or any other ingredients. Honey and brown sugar will ferment too quickly and ruin your nectar and make your hummingbirds sick.
Sugar substitutes have no calories and calories are what the hummingbirds are looking for. The hummingbirds need plenty of calories to maintain and fuel those 60 plus wing beats per second that keep them aloft.
Don’t use red food coloring in the hummingbird nectar food recipe either. The food coloring could be harmful to the hummingbirds, so just use a feeder that has red on it or tie a red ribbon to the feeder to help attract the hummingbirds.
Hummingbird nectar food recipe how-to:
Making the hummingbird nectar food recipe is a simple process. You will use a 4 to 1 ratio of 4 parts tap water to 1 part table sugar. A 4 to 1 ratio will make a nectar that is similar to the nectar that the hummingbirds get from the flower blooms they feed on.
For example, to make 5 cups of the hummingbird nectar food recipe, use 4 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar. Add the water to a pan and bring it to a boil as you stir in the sugar. Stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved.
Boiling for about 2 minutes is long enough to release any chlorine from the water in the hummingbird nectar food recipe and long enough to kill any other bacteria that might cause your nectar to go bad sooner.
Once the hummingbird nectar has boiled for about 2 minutes, your hummingbird nectar food recipe is complete. Let the nectar cool and then you can add it to your feeder.
Your hummingbird nectar will have to be changed every so often to keep mold from growing in your nectar and on your hummingbird feeder. How often to change the nectar is based on how hot the weather is. See the chart below to see how often to change the nectar based on the outside temperature.
High temperatures…………Change nectar after
71-75……………………………6 days
76-80……………………………5 days
81-84……………………………4 days
85-88……………………………3 days
89-92……………………………2 days
93+………………………………change daily
If you change the nectar on time, feeder maintenance can be kept to a bare minimum. All you will have to do is rinse it out with hot water each time you change the nectar. Some people will also rinse their feeder out every week or so with a 10% white vinegar and water solution to help clean it.
This will be enough to maintain the cleanliness of your feeder and keep it attractive to hummingbirds.
If you let too much time pass before changing the nectar, mold will start to grow and you will have to soak your feeder in a bleach water solution to kill the mold and sanitize your feeder.
Make a solution with 10% bleach and 90% water. Soak your feeder in this solution for about an hour to kill the mold. Remove the feeder from the bleach water and rinse it thoroughly with running water until all traces of the bleach are gone. Once the feeder is rinsed you can fill it again with the hummingbird nectar food recipe.
You may need some hummingbirds feeder brushes to help remove the mold from all the crooks and crannies of your feeder. To make feeder cleaning quicker and easier, get a feeder that’s easy to take apart and allows easy access to all the internal areas of the feeder.
The first time you have to clean mold out of your feeder you will wish you had a feeder that was easy to take apart and clean.
Here is a feeder that’s easy to clean and has a lot of other features that make feeding hummingbirds a lot more enjoyable.
Now that your hummingbird nectar food recipe is done, you will need to get a feeder that is easy to take apart and clean, and one that will also protect your hummingbird nectar food recipe from bees ants and wasps.
My favorite choice of hummingbird feeders to use with the homemade hummingbird nectar food recipe is:
Aspects 12oz Hummzinger Ultra With Nectar Guard
It’s inexpensive and has several features that makes it well worth the price.
The HummZinger has patented Nectar guard tips which are flexible membranes attached to the feed ports that prohibit entry from flying insects, but allow Hummingbirds to feed as usual. The HummZinger also has a built in ant moat that will stop crawling insects from getting to the nectar. It also has raised flower ports that divert rain.
This mid-size nectar feeder has a 12 oz. capacity and can be hung or post mounted with hardware provided. It has four feeding ports for hummingbirds and is made of unbreakable polycarbonate. Easy to clean.
For ease of cleaning and protection from bees, wasps and ants, this feeder can’t be beat.
If you already have a hummingbird feeder, and you want to protect it from ants and other crawling insects, the ant moat below will do the job.
Trap-It Ant Moat for Hummingbird Feeders, Red
Product Description
The first and still the best to protect your Hummingbird and Oriole feeder from ants and other crawling insects. Insert between hanger and feeder and fill with water, providing a barrier to crawling pests. Red color to attract hummingbirds.
Keep your feeder clean and use this hummingbird nectar food recipe, and you will be enjoying your hummingbirds all summer long.
I hope you enjoyed this article on the hummingbird nectar food recipe.
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