This topic comes up from time to time, tiresome for some no doubt, but I
always enjoy and find the contributions from other hummingbird enthusiasts
useful. Just our year round every day Anna's (and Rufous in summer) never
cease to keep me entertained just by their constant presence, whether at the
feeders or in the nearby bushes, and nary even a second of any given day
from the first inkling of daylight to the last are they not around by sight
and 'sound'. Indeed, the utter most regular and dependable denizens of my
yard, garden and feeders above and beyond all else.

Maybe I've just missed it, but I don't recall any mention of using anything
other than a 4:1 ratio water:sugar solution and thus prepare the solution
the same way, 4:1, year round, and all the hummers seem quite happy with
the status quo. So, I'm a little uneasy about the possibility of doing
winter feedings at 3:1, much less 1:1, although Patricia's point perhaps seems
plausible, at least at the 3:1 ratio during the winter.

It was a bit of a challenge this past winter with the prolonged snow and
freezing cold, even through the day, keeping the feeders from freezing, and I
just rotated them in and out of the house as needed during the day and
brought them all in at night so they would all start out at room temperature
come first light when those accustomed to the feeders presence first show up
like clockwork at the very first hint of daylight. The 4:1 solution first
starts to freeze at around 25-27F I've noticed, sugar being a sort of
'antifreeze' I'm guessing and will just remain slushy at the top. Above 27F,
it doesn't freeze at all. Once a hard freeze does start (low 20's, teens),
it proceeds quickly, from the top down as I think the freezing process
causes the lighter weight water to separate and 'float' to the top while the
more dense sugar component begins settling downward which then results in
what I presume to be much richer solution than might be healthy, but I might
be wrong about the physics and chemistry of what's happening in there and
whether or not a denser concentration does much or any harm at all.
Although the hummingbirds seem to really like it at that point, I try to be
careful not to let it happen very often and just rotate them often when I first
notice any ice, slush really, and with some of those days we had here in the
lowlands last winter, that could be every 1-3 hours. Fortunately for us
around here, such cold doesn't happen very often, some winters not at all.
When you're dealing with freezing and thawing feeders, It's probably good
to invert the feeders and give them a little shake after they've thawed to
assure the top layer of water is mixed with the sugary part before rotating
it back outside. Below 25F, it doesn't much matter as the whole thing
freezes. So, my question is if a 4:1 solution starts to freeze at around 27F,
at what temperature might it start freezing up at a 3:1 ratio? Maybe the
same resulting in an even richer mixture in the bottom? I'll never go 1:1;
that's just too much in my opinion and I don't care to wind up nursing a
bunch of obese and diabetic hummingbirds. So far, I've never tried
'heaters' since they wouldn't be very practical with my 7-feeder 'trapline' setup
as they hang now scattered throughout the home grounds as the hummingbirds
seem to really like it that way.

As for preparations, I ALWAYS boil the water in a tea pot and do the
mixings in a 1 or 2 cup size pyrex measuring cup, 4:1, and then just let it cool
for a few hours, all day, or all night at room temperature and never refill
anything until the solution is at least room temperature (or colder if a
fresh solution has been stored in the fridge). There's never a rush to fill
the feeders as long as you just watch them when they are getting low, and
if you feel that there is a rush, ...like when they start peeking in the
window because a favorite feeder is dry, they'll wait; they're not going
anywhere far. It's certainly easy and fast to dissolve the sugar in boiling
water then stir it a wee bit just to make sure it's all dissolved and the
solution is crystal clear minus any particulates, plus boiling might actually
further purify the water of any potential contaminates and/or perhaps some
chemicals coming from the tap. AND..., as John Puschock points out,
"boiling helps prolong the life of the sugar water, i.e., helps keep it from
'going bad'. I think the idea is not to sterilize it to make it safe for
hummingbirds but to reduce the number of microbes feeding on the sugar,"
something I've always suspected or believed anyway minus the empirical evidence or
urban legend if that's the case, just common sense. What I do know just
from years of experience and attending all this very closely, the solution
lasts in the feeders a lot longer, weeks, even a month or more in the
winter, by boiling rather than just dissolving the sugar from running water
straight from the tap. Summer and higher temperatures, it's a different
matter, feeders have to be monitored closely and dumped and cleaned much more
frequently if the hummingbirds aren't draining them fast enough which is
usually not a problem over here. Any hint of cloudiness in the solution whether
in the hanging feeder or even a fresh mixed batch should probably be
dumped at that point, clean everything up, and start over.

As for cleaning the feeders, I usually do so every time I fill them using
simple hot tap water, dish detergent (lemon "Joy"), and a variety of
brushes, then rinse thoroughly. Very simple. No bleach is ever needed or ever
used. The only time bleach might be required is if the feeders have been
neglected far too long and there's an obvious buildup of caked on mold, dirt,
and scum, in which case, you, the hummingbird enthusiast gets an "F" :-))

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA



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