Make Your Own Hummingbird Food

Messy Messy Fail - Wouldn't you believe that the toddler ripped a horrid word (I can't type it out loud it's too embarrassing!) at Sherwin Williams this morning when I was returning and picking up some new paint chips.  Mortified, I flew out of the store as quickly as possibly, but hey wait a minute...."I shouldn't be embarrassed, I didn't say the word.  You did, and now you are going to apologize to the nice lady in the store where you said that horrid word!"  And apologize he did.

Tidy Victory - My leverage?  No lollipop from the bank drive-thru.  Little boys who say rude words do not get lollipops from the bank.  I don't think he'll be saying that word again any time soon - I win (kind of).  Now I will admit I certainly am not perfect and horrid words do slip from my lips time to time, but now I (we!) REALLY need to be mindful.  We are the example and this was an excellent wake up call for that.  

One of my favorite summertime visitors to our backyard deck is the hummingbirds.  It's so exciting when I see the the small little zippy bird fly up and check out our red flowers (did you know they love red flowers?).

I once saw a hummingbird hanging around our red plastic garage door emergency pull.

They really like anything red.

I know lots of people with feeders who buy the red hummingbird food at the store.  Why do that when you can just make your own?

And even though they like the color red, the hummingbird food doesn't need to be red.  

In fact, I have read that the red-dyed food you buy may not be that good for them.

But anyways, back to the topic at hand, you should make your own hummingbird food.  

It is beyond easy and as inexpensive as it gets.  

To make your home hummingbird food, you need:

• 1/4 c. of granulated sugar
• 1 c. of water

And here is what you do:

• In a small saucepan over low heat, warm up the 1 c. of water.  The water does not need to simmer, just be heated.

• Pour the 1/4 c. sugar into the heated water and stir in the sugar.  Allow the sugar to dissolve completely, remove the pan from heat and let cool completely.

• When cooled, pour the sugar water into your hummingbird feeder and hang for your little buddies.

I have a small feeder and find that if I make a larger batch it gets wasted because the sugar water gets moldy before it is all eaten.

If you need to make a bigger batch, just change your amounts to 1/2 c. sugar and 2 c. water.  Any sugar water you don't use can just be kept in a container in the fridge until ready to use.

As you can see from my pictures, I have the cheapest feeder ever.  I really think I paid around $4.00 at Walmart for it.  I've had the best luck with it.  I had a pretty glass one - it fell off of the hook and broke.  I had other bigger, prettier ones but they were a huge pain to take apart and clean.

An avid hummingbird enthusiast once told me, 'The cheaper, the better."

This one seems to do the trick.

Check out my husband's awesome fire pit in the background, we love having campfires even though we haven't gotten to use it much this summer.

If your feeder does get moldy, just take it apart and clean it with a sponge and mild dish soap.

Amish playground (squeal!) on the right.

I'd try to get a picture of one of my little visitors, but it's near impossible.  

I'll let you know if I get one.

Try this, save money and enjoy the little zippers!

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