Hi All

I am forwarding this as a general interest item. It has made it's way via
New York and Florida.

Roger Craik
Maple Ridge BC
rcraik at home.com

----- Original Message -----
From: George Houghton <geh5 at cornell.edu>
To: Upstate NY Birding <CAYUGABIRDS-L at cornell.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 05 August, 1999 2:32 PM
Subject: Hummingbird Sugar


> Hummingbirds/case sugar/beet sugar
> A bird detective account by the team of Jo and George Houghton
>
> FIRST FROM JO:
>
> Since we've had some inquiries about the cane sugar/hummingbird
> recommendations, it's time to make time to post the account.
>
> We use a lot of granulated white sugar every season for our ever-growing
> population of hummingbirds, so the sugar is bought in lots of 5 or 10 bags
> when there is a good sale in the supermarkets year. Until this year, I
> always figured granulated sugar was granulated sugar, and bought whatever.
>
> This spring, the birds began arriving as usual, thin and hungry from
> migration and the feeders went out. There's little in nectar sources as
> early as the ruby-throats come, in fact they feed at yellow-bellied
> sapsucker feeding holes, and at broken branches of sugar maples and other
> trees (as do chickadees, early warblers, rose-breasted grosbeaks, etc.).
> Traffic at the feeders was heavy.
>
> About the time that the black locust trees bloomed (and there wasn't much
> else in flower at all), all the hummingbirds were suddenly gone from the
> feeders. We have almost no black locust anywhere near us, and I couldn't
> think of any good nectar sources around at that time. The drought was
> already in gear here too. My first (and worst) fear was that some
chemical
> had blown in from the neighboring farm fields, and the birds were
repelled,
> or even dead. I made new nectar. I cleaned the feeders. No change, no
> birds. I did it again. I worried. A population of birds we've watched
> and cared for for over 2 decades (and watched their behaviors change as
> well) was gone.
>
> Watching the feeders very carefully, I noticed that birds did come in, and
> acted oddly. A bird would taste, fly up and fly around, chitter a lot, as
> they ordinarily do when they see a rival, or a missing feeder (being
> cleaned/filled) or a person too close, or - horrors - a cat napping on the
> porch, and flash off. Suddenly the sugar was suspect. Could the bag/bags
> have been contaminated with something, or the paper of the bags? Did we
> have tiny "canaries in the coal mines" here? All the bags were the same
> brand and the same lot numbers - a very good sale.
>
> I got a different bag of sugar, different brand, though still
> generic/unlabeled as to sugar type, cleaned the feeders, made new
solution.
> In less thatn 24 hours, there were very hungry hummingbirds everywhere.
> YES!!!
>
> The possibility of a big coincidence dropped sharply the following day, in
> this way. Feeding had been so heavy that a popular feeder (on the porch -
> easy to observe) was emptied, so I made up just a 2 cup batch, quick to
> cool, to fill that one until I could do a big batch. I'd been making the
> new solution out of the new bag, but forgot and used the old surplus sugar
> which is still in the canister. Suddenly that one popular feeder was
> totally shunned - feeding at the others continued hot and heavy. Bingo -
> Ccllaborating data.
>
> OVER TO GEORGE:
>
> I wanted to find out what might be happening here so, since it was
Wegman's
> sugar, I called Wegmans. They gave most impressive help in tracking down
> the problem. I want to thank them greatly for their help.
>
> First I called the local store and gave them the lot number. They checked
> the shelves and found no lot numbers where we had found them. Then I
> called Rochester and talked to Judy Carey in consumer service. She
checked
> with 2 suppliers and the lot number didn't make sense to either. They had
> no explanation. I sent her the bag with the lot number and a sample of
> sugar and after a day or two she called back with the solution to the
mystery.
>
> By then she had checked with a third supplier and they recognized the lot
> number. First of all, when a bag is labeled "Granulated Sugar", it can be
> either cane or beet depending on availability at the moment. The supplier
> then told her that they had been supplying the owner of a large ranch in
> Texas who feeds hummers on a large scale and bought his sugar directly
from
> the supplier. He had observed that Hummers could apparently "Taste" the
> difference between cane and beet and rejected beet. The supplier now
> provides him with exclusively cane sugar.
>
> Apparently we had been using beet sugar. We started buying only bags that
> are labeled "Cane" and it is gleefully accepted.
>
> Thanks again Wegmans, and particularly Judy Carey, for your assistance in
> this endeavor.
>
> BACK TO JO:
>
> Thinking back over the years, I realize that there have been other times
> when hummingbirds left the feeders en masse for periods of time. I
> remember worrying, talking to people, reading, and finally (with hope)
> concluding that there was some wonderful copious nectar source in bloom
> somewhere around. Other people asked me about similar observations,
saying
> they've put out a feeder/feeders where they've seen birds, but the birds
> don't use the feeders. A couple of people said they made their own
> hummingbird food, feeders went unused, so they bought commercial nectars,
> and got hummingbirds.
>
> Probably in past events of this kind, I'd used up the beet sugar quickly,
> making jam, canning, baking for a party, for the freezer, things I do less
> now, Maybe I didn't have the cash to buy 30 or 40 lbs. of sugar at one,
> however good, sale. And this year the obvious, partly drought-driven lack
> of natyural nectar sources made the need for a new, and this time accurate
> explanation apparent.
>
> The only sugar I'm buying now is Domino brand which is labeled "CANE";
> however, not all Domino sugar is labeled "CANE".
>
> There was a question about sucanate sugar, which I think is made by a kind
> of slow drying out, rather than crystallization, as regular granulated
> sugar is made (or at least finished). It is very expensive compared to
> regular granulated cane sugar. I don't see how it would be better, and if
> it were made from sugar beets, rather than cane, it would likely also be
> rejected by hummingbirds. It's "unbleached" look is from stuff left in
> that is left behind in crystallization, I think.
>
> As a one time fancy candy and tricky boiled frosting maker, I remember
that
> some of these don't work well, or at all, with anything but cane sugar.
>
> A final note: As we send this, the little guys are swarming onto our
> balcony to stoke up for the night. It's quite a sight.
>
> Jo and George
>
>
> George Houghton
>
> 79 Yaple Rd. 607-539-7320 geh5 at cornell.edu
> Berkshire, N.Y. 13736-2030 (Actually live in Caroline, near Ithaca, NY)
>
>