I'm just sick about this freezing weather!!! Sick!!!

Wondering what the damage will be. Lots of new growth on everything, and it won't like the freeze!

Not to mention the nesting BBs, chickadees, etc. Amazingly, I have not seen any hummers so far! Don't know why, but just as well with these low temps.

At first the weatherman said it would only go as low as thrity-six, and I thought we can all weather that. Now the weatherman is calling for a low of twenty-eight tonight, and it's real cold now.

Very heart sick and worried.
Michele

rthummer, These cold temperatures are going to be hard on them, and it's a sad fact that a lot of the early arrivals are not going to survive. I'm glad mine haven't yet arrived. Here in western Pennsylvania, and also in areas up north where hummers have already been sighted, daytime high temps are barely getting above freezing, and are falling to the low 20's at night. I'm worried about those early arrivals seen in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and elsewhere. All we can do is keep our feeders filled and hope that they're tough enough to make it.

I think yours have a good chance of survival because you're staying above freezing most of the day, and just dipping down to 29 degrees at night, probably spending only a couple hours below freezing. As long as you make sure to keep fresh sugar water in your feeders, I think they'll probably make it. If you're doing a standard 4:1 sugar water solution, you may want to temporarily increase the strength of your sugar solutions to 3:1 (water to sugar) so that they get more energy per feeding. That's all I can think to do.

I thought this article might interest you. You have to scroll way down the page to the part that says "Surviving the cold."

Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbirds and cold

Thanks Kristin,
I did change my feeder to the 3:l ratio. I had the 4 parts water to l part sugar but changed when I read your info. I appreciate that. Today I saw several but not as many as I did the first day. :( Dang weather. Some of my flowers that were blooming that I could not cover are now frost bitten. I am upset, but the main concern is for my precious little "honey birds" I affectionally call my hummers "honey birds."
Thanks for your help. I sure hope this weather lets up fast. It is suppose to rain tomorrow, I am hoping it will bring in warmer temps.

A look at this weather map will show that the cold temps will be moving out of Texas by Monday. I wish we could say the same up north. It looks like we're going to have to wait until mid week before the temps really start to improve.

You can click on the "+" sign from the table on the left, and that will advance you 12 hours forward at a time, or click the "-" to go backwards. Then all you have to do is put the mouse pointer on the high or low temp and you will see a color coded map of the entire country with colors corresponding to different temperatures. Try it and you'll see. It's nice to see those dark blues and purples (20's and 30's) clearing out of Texas.

I hope your plants and your little honey birds make it alright! I think they will--the birds, at least. I'm less sure about the plants. The birds up north in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are really in for a rough time. I hope they make it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Interactive weather map

rthummer

I just posted to answer to your question on cold and hummers on another post . Take a look at rebetika post and question on what can I do for the hummers.

Yesterday, within 30-45 minutes I saw 7 birds at my feeder. Is this normal, or should there be fewer or more?