Just curious, hummersteve--How many individual hummingbirds do you think you get in one day at your peak time? I've always wondered about how many birds I'm getting, but have had a hard time telling them apart. I know that last year I had at least 4 birds, but it's possible I had more.

The reason I ask is that I was doing a little research on how much solution hummingbirds require in a day. After consulting some books, I figured that 50 ml (=1.77oz) of solution might feed about 8 ruby-throats for one day. Of course this could vary somewhat depending on weather, and migration. This sort of confirmed my experiences with my home made feeders, which only hold about 50ml of solution. I figure I have about 4 birds (saw all of them at once at one point) and it usually took them 1 1/2 to 2 days to empty a 50ml feeder. This worked well for me, because I was never tempted to let solution get old and pretty much had to refill the feeder every other day.

Anyway, if you do the math, a 32 oz feeder would feed about 144 hummingbirds a day! Does anyone not on a major migration route get that many birds in one day? Why on earth, then, do they make the feeders so big? If I started to get more birds, I would just prefer to add more small feeders, placed carefully out of sight from each other. I think that would be best for the birds.

Anyway, I'm not trying to be a wet blanket about your inexpensive feeder idea, it's just that it got me thinking. I suppose there's no law that says you have to fill the feeder up the full 32 ounces. Or, maybe most people get more birds than I do. Still, 32 ounces seems larger than necessary for most people. I wonder why they make them so big.

I have 3 of these feeders and have had them since they were first offered. I don't have the 32 oz. size though. I bought the 16 oz size but i only put 4-6 ounces in each one. I bought them to test them in the beginning for ease of cleaning etc. as I had people looking for bottle feeders wtith a wide easy to clean mouth. These feeders fit the bill to a t. When I lived in Louisiana, I ran 3 12 ounce feeders and refilled them all at least twice a day all summer long. I actually wasn't on their direct migration route but more like I am up here in relation to the migration route.

Penny

kristin-- You are correct, but as I said Im not sure If the feeder I saw is 16 or 32oz.but the size does not really matter during the summer regardless of how big your feeder is it needs to be changed every couple of days to prevent spoiling of the mix. I change mine every couple of days regardless of how much is in the feeder. One point in particular about this feeder to me is not its cheapness, but that its all red, which may be the most important thing about it.

Now about your question of how many hummers I have , if thats really what you were getting at on your dig. Last year on the average I had between 6-8 every day. but during a peak period most likely after the immatures were out I had between 12-15, but this was a very short period of time toward the end of the season.

Wow, Penny! You must have had huge numbers of hummingbirds to drink that much nectar. I'm envious. I've seen pictures posted on this forum of people with huge feeders just swarming with hummingbirds, so I certainly knew it was possible to get lots of birds, but, alas, that has so far not been my experience. I'm relatively new at this, so it's also possible that it will take time for me to attract more birds. I'm hoping that my efforts to plant more hummer flowers and feeding them artificially will attract more over time. The habitat around here should be good--lots of woods and a pond in a clearing nearby. There should be a lot of good nesting places for them. Anyway, I hope that if I keep on doing what I'm doing, I'll gradually get more birds. That's the plan, anyway. On the other hand, I should maybe count my blessings in that I haven't had huge problems with fighting and competition like some people report. And yet, I don't think 15 minutes goes by that I don't have a visitor, so I can't really complain.

Steve, I'm glad you took my post the right way. I certainly wasn't trying to criticize your suggestion, only to report my puzzlement about why a feeder would need to be so large. Penny has shown me that some people really do have enough birds to drink up that much nectar. Still, I worry about people who are not as knowledgeable or conscientious as you and Penny. I have visions of people filling a 32 ounce feeder, getting 6 birds a day, and then not changing the nectar for two weeks in the heat of summer. I wasn't trying to suggest that how much you put in would affect the rate of spoilage, just that it might mislead novices into filling it completely, and then not feeling the need to change it very often.

For right now, I'm having so much fun with my teeny little feeders, that I'll stick with them. They take awhile to make, but probably only cost about $2-$3 in supplies.

It will be fun to see what this year brings. I started feeding them in August of 2005, so this will be only my second full year of feeding them. I'm looking forward to it!

I have the smaller version of the first Nature feeder, and it is the least preferred of all my feeders...I have everything from the Mini Hummzinger to the 96 oz Perky Pet. I'm in Southern Ohio, and have an average of 12-15 birds once the season gets going, althought counting 20-25 at once isin't unusual in August.
My hummers will use the first Nature once they drain the others, but they really seem to prefer the saucer style Hummzinger line, and the Perky Pet 48 ouncer.

Now that's funny Ron. It must be what they become accustomed to within their habitat. I also use the saucer feeders and I use test tube feeders. The test tubes are used mostly by the juveniles who won't use any of my other feeders. I think these are less intimidating to them. The other birds have quickly taken to both the first nature and saucer feeders. I did have several last year during migration that would not use any feeder. I pulled out all the stops and dug out even older feeders and they only used the flowers. This was the case with the one late migrant that I had in late October. There were quite a few reports from master banders as well as hummer gardeners who said the same thing.

Penny

I have birds that won't use the flowers at all, and will only use the feeders. The birds that used the flowers the most were the juveniles in the mid and late summer. It seemed like the adults would get used to the feeders as an easy, unchanging food source, and were really into the efficiency of it. Why bother rummaging around through the flower garden when you can get it all in one stop? That seems to be what is going on in their minds. It was driving me nuts last year to watch the adults feeding at my feeders just above a healthy patch of Monarda didyma. The young birds feasted on it, the adults, forget it. The young ones, not surprisingly, seem more instinctively drawn to the flowers, but quickly learned to investigate the feeders.

My feeders (at least to the human eye!) look a lot more like flowers than any of the commercial feeders I've seen. The other interesting thing is that although hummers are certainly drawn to red, I made a purple feeder that they went straight to. I'm going to try out more colors this year and see what they do. I'm particularly curious to see if they'll go to white. Years ago I saw a hummer at my white Casa Blanca lilies, so I suppose they'll investigate just about anything they think might have nectar.

It would not surprise me, Penny, given your northern location, if you get a lot of 1st year fall migrants that are not feeder savvy. Being just south of Canada, I'll bet you get a higher proportion than those of us to the south, of birds that live in the wilds of Canada and have never seen a feeder. However I'm also curious if you encounter adults that won't use your feeders. That would be harder to explain, but maybe they, too, spend so much time in remote parts of Canada that they haven't seen feeders as much as the urban and suburban birds. They sure are fascinating little creatures!

Well could it be they are a creature of habit , going back to what they first went to and are most familiar with. I have two window feeders and two yard feeders and my computer window is setup perfect so I can view all this activity. Mine also prefer feeders over flowers and the window feeders over the others, but the window feeders were first and maybe they feel a sense of safety there and the window feeders are shaded and cooler there. Also all my feeders are the bottle type. My hummers preferred the feeders over what few flowers I had in fact as Kristin said they seem to ignore what flowers I had hostas and korean mint agastache. They seemed to be more apt to check out my tomato blooms which were also right under this same window. Before the tomato plant got big they liked to perch on the tomato cage and preen themselves and when the plant got big they liked to play and hide among the huge plant. This year though I will have a lot more flowers in my yard that they should at least be tempted to check out, but It will be later in the season before those bloom. I will have to add another window feeder as their favorite feeder the perky pet half-round developed a leak and I nursed this feeder through the end of the season and then had to trash it, but they are used to going this window so they adjust to what is there. Ive had about 4 different window feeders due to leakage and whatever. I would like to add one of those saucer style mini humzingers.

My walmart has sold out of the these cheap feeders. A lot people are getting ready for their arrival and happen to like the price, cause there are no more till they get restocked.

Steve those are the first feeders to sell out here too. I buy one every year for my daughter for her birthday but have to buy it early because if I wait they are all gone..

Penny

What about this photo! It's not mine, I don't remember whose it is, but I know Hummersteve knows :) Christy
{{gwi:978126}}
I bet Penny knows, too........

Wow. I can only dream about needing that many! In the past, it has amazed me to see other similar pictures showing porches festooned with lots of big feeders. For my humble operation, two or three 50 ml ones are more than enough for me!

I'm assuming this picture was taken in California?

Thanks for posting it, Christy.

Christy

Yes, I most certainly do know, this photo was entered by "rusticranch" back in july/august to my post -how many hummers do you have. This photo shows 9feeders and they are all glass 30oz. I know them well for I had one just like it for years, but the bottle neck chipped on me and I believe I disposed of it. Back to the photo rusticranch went on to say at last report that he now had 13 of those feeders and had to refill them everyday. Im sure he has more feeders now.

Well guys went shopping at meijers and found a 16oz feeder of this post fist nature and I found a window feeder 12oz. which will replace one that broke last year strawberry shaped and also is the first window feeder that my hummers adapted to. I also found this day lily red that I want to plant soon, may need some coaching on it. Ony thing I know about these is that when they flower its good for one day and then a new flower comes on.

Steve
Daylilies are almost indestructible. You can plant them in moist soil, dry soil, clay soil or whatever and they will just keep growing and spreading. Mine are coming out this year as they take up too much prime Hummer plant real estate.
Penny

Penny

I havent planted the day lily yet , I have limited space for hummer plants to begin with too. What do you think about putting it in a large container and then it can be moved or stuck in anywhere I can. My sister has day lilies and I dont remember those being spread out, just a a certain amount of foliage at the bottom.

Steve, I grew a smaller daylily in a pot last summer along with some geraniums and it did just fine. I just ran outside to check on it and it is sending up its first little green shoots. The geraniums, of course, are history.

Although I grew a little one, I'm sure you could grow a larger daylily in a pot, as long as the pot is big enough. They are very tough and adaptable plants. Although they do spread over time, if your container is large enough, you might only need to divide it every few years.

Yep daylilies will do fine in a pot...the bigger the better b/c they will spread out each year and will need to be divided after a couple of years.

Penny

I had no idea it would have a root system that big. I put it in the biggest pot I have which I do not feel is big enough 10diam. and not all that deep either. I will need something else. I will work on it.

It will be fine in that pot for a year or maybe even a couple of years depending on how big it is now. I started out with a 12 inch deep pot and only one division. The next year I had three.

Penny

Penny
What about the division you speak of , Im lost. How do you know when and where to make the division when the time comes
Steve

Youw will see what looks like seperate clusters of plants once they start to spread. Some people shovel prune them but I dig up the whole plant and break off the sections and then you can replant the extra duvisions where you want them or pot them up.

Penny

Penny

My walmart got the 32oz feeders back in but no 16oz feeders, glad I got the 16ozer I found at meijers. My walmart had some tube feeders for $. 97 I had to get one of those to hang from a tree.

Steve - this is sortof a late response but since I just read this thread, I can maybe illustrate what Penny is talking about regarding the daylilies...

I had some awhile back (started with 4 babies) and kept them in a container for about 4 years before dividing. When it came time to divide, the container (12" x 12" x 12" square) looked like this... LOL:

When all was said and done, I separated out 13 plants that looked like this:

Since one of my sisters had just moved, I donated them to her to get one of her dry west-facing borders going with something (freeing up some room for a bunch of new plants that I got like some red-twig dogwoods, a heuchera, and a dicentra).

They are definitely do-able in pots though! I have a red one (a baby last year) - forgot the name and need to dig up the tag - and am hoping it will bloom this year.

I have a few feeders on my patio over each summer.
I know that I have counted as many as 6 different birds at one time outside my patio doors.
I go with the bigger sizes because I dont have to fill so often.
I know it sitting too long will go stangnat and rancid, but I end up filling all of them about once a week.
As to yellow flowers on feeders attracting bees?
I know I have alot of bees on the feeders, yellow flowers or not. The feeder I have with all red and no yellow has as many of them on it as those with yellow do.
I dont kno wenough about the birds to identify what type of hummer it is, some have te red spot some have green. Male adn female? differnt types? a few have all brown, various sizes as well.
I have to keep the feeders abuot 10 feet apart as even though all of them have atleast 4 stations on them, the little buggers fight constantly ! one is chased away by another and then a third runs in behind to feed while the first two are off chasing each other around.
I may well have 100 different birds a day, but I can only attest to ever seeing 8 at one time.
My grandpas sister lived in Moab Utah. They had several feeders on the front porch and some mroe out in teh yard. One summer on a vacation trip I can remember seeing atleast 20 different birds at thier house at one time.
Some place in long put away photo albums there are pictures of many of the hummers flying around the porch and at the feeders. Ill have to see if I can find them and maybe post some after a quik scan of the photos.

Thursday morning (09/19/2010)I filled 3 20oz hummer feeders along with an 8 oz feeder. This evening Saturday(09/21/10) I had to refill all of them as they were "TOTALLY" empty. That's 68oz in three days. I read Kristin Williams note about hummers consuming 1.7 oz daily which seems to be very accurate. So far I have counted 12 hummers at one time at our feeders which is really hard when they are buzzing around like jet fighters. My wife and I enjoy sitting on the porch watching them. Today I ordered 2 48 oz feeders on-line from Wal-Mart for a cost of $36.00 which includes shipping. I am anxious to see just how many hummers will eventually land here all at one time. They are truly wonderful little birds that give a lot of joy.

I wish I lived in an area that has gobs of hummers. I've only seen 3 at once. sigh.....

I disagree with the numbers in the 2nd post on this thread. The poster wrote "... a 32 oz feeder would feed about 144 hummingbirds a day..." My hummers have been using 3 quarts per day for at least 2 months - that would 432 hummers...a little hard to believe! Another method uses the average number of hummers seen at once at the feeders, and multiplies that by 4 for a minimum and 5 for a maximum - giving me 80-100 hummers, a small fraction of 432. One formula has to be wrong.

i have always wondered how you would also calculate the numbers but i agree with you ctnchpr because for the last 2 months i get between 12 to 18 at my feeders in which i have seven feeders up and fill them about every three days and they are pretty much empty. Sometimes they will empty the160z feeder in one day. So i guess that would give me around 50 birds. sounds reasonable i guess

Not sure about this statement:

50 ml (=1.77oz) of solution might feed about 8 ruby-throats for one day

Perhaps hummers drink more in August than other months, perhaps not. But... I have the 2.3 ounce feeders and the last week ONE hummer has been drinking half the feeder a day. Perhaps once in a while a different bird might take a drink, but I know the one bird is taking most, if not all, of it.

I used to have this dead elm tree in my front yard which I kept there simply for the hummers. I also used to hang 6 of those 3oz one port feeders in it. So using Kristins 1.7 per hummer meas. once emptied equals 10 birds , but I would change these feeders twice more during the day [30 birds] but I could have refilled them 6 times If I kept up with them [60 ?] Now this was in july way before migration really got underway. So this brings up another question, just how much does feeder placement and type of feeder change what they do. Since my dead tree no longer exists this year I humg those same 6 feeders out back on a line and they are hardly used maybe 3days before I need to change them.

intereting you say that hummersteve because two years ago i had to remove a snowball tree that was quite close to my bedroom window where i had a feeder hung. the hummers would empty that in one or two days and now its two weeks before its empty so they obviousely did not like me moving it. i am going to build a deck where i get most of my action from the birds i hope that wont change anything

Hi. I am new to this. I bought a hummzinger hummingbird feeder. My question is this: is it safe to leave it out in the rain? Does anyone else worry about the rain getting in the feeder?

I don't see rain being a problem. In fact, the feeder I have, has a little mote in the center where the hanger wire inserts, to keep ants and other creepy crawlees off the working areas of the feeder.