The Backyard Ombudsman: How To Make Hummingbird Food!

[/caption]Many of us pride ourselves in home made goodies. It’s fun to make home made goodies for our local avian friends as well. Whether it’s bird suet, artificial cavities, or hummingbird food, it can be very fun and challenging to prepare a tasty meal for those we are wanting to attract – birds. There are, however, some things to think about when learning how to make hummingbird nectar.

When considering hummingbird feeding, one thing to be mindful of is cloudiness in your hummingbird feeder. This “cloudiness” is caused by nasty bacterial development, which can be expedited by warm sunshine piercing its shiny rays into your feeder, thus hitting the slowly fermenting hummingbird food formula, better known as sugar water.  A good starting point for this bacteria to take root is when your water and solution harbor impurities. This fungus can formulate in the sugar water, where you may not find it as much in your wild bird feed.

One of the ways to slow the process of fungal activity when feeding hummingbirds is to add the sugar in boiling water. At this point, you’ll want to wait until the water comes to a boil before turning off the heat and letting the solution cool down to room temperature.  Should you have any remaining hummingbird food mix left, you certainly will want to refrigerate it.

A few additional tips that will help to maintain your humming bird feeders and the solution they behold.

• Fill your feeders with just enough solution for a day or two so that the humming birds will drink it before it spoils
• When cleaning your hummingbird feeder parts, soak them in hot, soapy water each time before refilling them. There are special brushes and pipe cleaners to help you reach those place that are hard to get to.
• When considering a bird feeder location, placing your hummingbird feeders out of the sun and into a shady area. This helps to keep fungus and bacteria from taking advantage of your feeder.

For more information on Hummzinger hummingbird feeders, hanging or window hummingbird feeders, simply visit:  www.wildlife-houses.com

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Ken “The Batman” Rudman is resident of Wyoming. He is also a writer, businessman and a promoter of bird and bat preservation, natural insect control, and a “how-to” guy to help people build up their backyard network in attracting song birds, feeders, artificial houses, facts and more. Send your questions, ideas, article requests and inquiries to Ken – The Backyard Ombudsman-  at his email address: mailto:wildlifehouses@yahoo.com