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If you feed hummers please read

Lady Jane

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Public Service Announcement on Behalf of Hummingbirds:
This hummingbird is unable to retract her tongue due to fungal spores that have germinated on her tongue or in her gullet caused by folks mixing honey or anything other than plain white sugar with water. She will die because she can no longer feed.
If you have feeders, PLEASE USE ONLY PLAIN WHITE SUGAR in your mixture of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. No organic or raw or brown sugar, no powdered sugar, no honey, no artificial sugar. Use plain white sugar/water mixture which is most similar to actual flower nectar. And no toxic red color liquids!
Change the sugar water mixture every couple of days, especially during high temperatures, as it will start to ferment if it sits out for days on end.
If you can't or won't do this, please do not put out a feeder at all.

copied from Maryland Birders FB group
 

Rain Bow

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Yes, & there are outdoor temperatures & amount of days to change feeders out.

This is what I found from Pinterest...

They are saying 3 water to 1 sugar tho & like you wrote, I've ALWAYS done 4-1 ratio.

Screenshot_20210608-015118~2.png
 

Kassiani

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My late Mom would always make the sugar-water mix and store the remainder in the fridge. Dad likes to watch the hummingbirds out his window, so I'll have to make a small batch when I visit next time.
 

Greylady1966

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Last week my sister told me that she's been putting oil on the bird feeder pole to prevent ants from crawling up. Please don't do this, the oil can get on their feathers.
 

Sparkles!

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I have a feeder out but never get any hummers. It’s pretty much a bee and butterfly feeder at this point!
 

Lady Jane

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I have been reading several places on the net about how much water to mix with the sugar. It seems to be different as in 2 cups to 4 cups. It does make a difference.
 

Toy

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The recipe is 1 part sugar 4 parts water. You can keep extra in the frig. Hummingbird Feeders

The site has a ton of info, including which flowers to attract them.

Like many other bird species there are fewer & fewer hummingbirds. We used to have a lot of them visit daily. Now we're lucky to get 2 or 3.
 

Teckechick

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The feeder we just bought says 1 cup water to 1/4 cup sugar. Thanks all for posting links with great information. We have seen a couple so far since putting the feeder up!
 
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