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"Where have all the hummingbirds gone"?


Arjay

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I'm a snowbird and every October I set up my hummingbird feeder for 6 months and enjoy the show.

This year I brought down a new super-duper non-drip feeder and have seen hardly any hummers in the 2 weeks I've been here. Does it usually take this long for them to find it? I miss them. Any suggestions?

I bought my sugar from WalMart and then noticed it had fewer calories - could this be anything to do with it? I think this is what I usually buy.

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I suspect many of the hummingbirds are still making their way south from being up north for the summer. A month ago I rarely saw one but more are showing up in my garden now.

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I'm a snowbird and every October I set up my hummingbird feeder for 6 months and enjoy the show.

This year I brought down a new super-duper non-drip feeder and have seen hardly any hummers in the 2 weeks I've been here. Does it usually take this long for them to find it? I miss them. Any suggestions?

I bought my sugar from WalMart and then noticed it had fewer calories - could this be anything to do with it? I think this is what I usually buy.

Please don't use fewer calorie sugar for the hummers. They need full calorie sugar to survive. BTW--what is fewer calorie sugar?

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We have 3 feeders up & all are active. Riberas area. They have been as territorial as usual so we spread them around the property to avoid the dominate individual. They have not been bugging us 1st thing in the morning to uncover the feeders, so I suspect the area still has an abundance of natural food.

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Every year, for the last 12 years we've been here....someone asks the same question. We have six large feeders on two levels of our house....by December I wish I had several more. We buy very little sugar in the summer and by December I am buying the 10 i liter bags pack at Costco....hang in there...they are on the way.

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Ha! These little guys dive-bomb your windows! In the hammock, they will zoom right over our heads. Their wings make quite a buzzing noise, and they will hover up and down at the window nearest the feeder early in the morning... loud enough to wake me up.

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Please don't use fewer calorie sugar for the hummers. They need full calorie sugar to survive. BTW--what is fewer calorie sugar?

I didn't realize it was lower calorie until I got home. I think I saw a 19 on the bag so maybe that was the calories in a teaspoon. I've done my Guad run for now so where's the cheapest place to buy full calorie white sugar - it seems kinda expensive here.

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Soriana sometimes has refined sugar - the ONLY kind to use - as does El Torito and SuperLake. Little tiendas rarely do. Mix 4 to 1. Buy a few pots of red flowers and set near the feeder to get their attention.

I have had them fly up to my face and hover, land on the feeder as I was hanging it out, and dive bomb people not responsible for hanging out the feeder such as husband and gardner.

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I am curious. I switched from unrefined in the feeder because it discoloured the plastic. But I've never looked up why refined would be better for the birds. My first thought is, since they process directly from the nectar of the flower, wouldn't refined cause more problems than raw sugar?

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I am no expert, but I read that you should only use cane sugar. Don't try to modify or substitute. They are not humans needing to lose weight. I used the 1 for 4 ratio as well. I've had the feeder out for about 10 days and they are coming to feed daily. The feeder needs to be kept clean.

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On the subject of cleaning. The black mold that developes inside the feeder can kill hummingbirds. Feeders in the sun, especially in summer, need to be cleaned at least every other day. Soak in clorox or vinegar water and rinse well. If the feeder is in the shade, you can go 3-4 days. Scrub the feeder tube with one of those little brushes you use for cleaning between teeth.

This is especially important if you have feeeders other than HummZinger style. You can't see inside the feeder to see if the mold has started to grow so cleaning is extra important.

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I am no expert, but I read that you should only use cane sugar. Don't try to modify or substitute. They are not humans needing to lose weight. I used the 1 for 4 ratio as well. I've had the feeder out for about 10 days and they are coming to feed daily. The feeder needs to be kept clean.

My father in law uses a 50% mixture of grenadine and water and his feeder is usually very active. He said sugar and water doesn´t attract as many birds.

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In prior winters we've had dozens of hummers and I used the same sugar, so I'm rather stumped why they're not coming and I miss watching them. It's now 2 weeks and they've hardly gone through any nectar so after 2-3 days I leave it out overnight and let the bats devour it and then thoroughly clean the feeder and try again.

I'll try and buy some white sugar today to see if it makes any difference. We only seems to get 2 varieties - the one people call the terminator (very territorial) and a small dark green one. I've never seen anything more exotic like a ruby throated one - maybe they're in a different part of the country.

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I´ll bet none as it is sugar and pomegranate juice.

Actually most commercial grenadines are little more than red food coloring and sweetener and that is as likely to be corn syrup as sugar. "To reduce production costs, manufacturers have widely replaced fruit bases with artificial ingredients. The Mott's brand "Rose's" is by far the most common brand of grenadine sold in the United States,[3] and is formulated from (in order of concentration): high fructose corn syrup, water, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium benzoate, FD&C Red #40, natural and artificial flavours and FD&C Blue #1.[4] " Wikipedia

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