Don't do that, eig! You'll get them sometime soon. You might try bright colored surveyor's tape hanging from the feeders, or red-colored gazing balls or other garden art. Hanging baskets or containers filled with hummingbird annuals like fuchsia, salvia, cuphea, and pentas will also help, especially if they're red blooms. And you might consider increasing your nectar ratio to 3:1 water to sugar to initially attract them.

If all this sounds like a chore, just consider that thrill of seeing and hearing a hummingbird in your garden...and remember that once they've found a reliable nectar source, they usually stay for the rest of the season!

Please don't give up.

I live in zone 7 south of you. I put 2 feeders out on March 9 and I too changed them religiously. I did not get my first Hummer till April26. That was a long and frustrating wait--but it was so worth it.

I now have 3 feeders out with at least 1 male and two females coming many times daily.

Thanks mbuckmaster and vickylovesboxers!

I'll give it another month. If I did not go all of last year without any I guess I would not have gotten so discouraged this year. Guess it will be an exciting day if they do indeed come!

Ken

Hey, I just got home from Florida and I put up my feeder and yesterday I got a surprise....yep, I got a visitor...even as chilly as it's been and off and on rain..So don't give up Ken.... I'm just outside of Philly..so not sure where you are...but they are arriving..
wooooooooohooooooo...

God Bless
BarbZeee

eigdeh
March is a little early to hang a feeder and start waiting in our northern zones. I hang my first out the 2nd to 3rd. week of April and even that is really a bit early. The earliest I have seen a hummer is April 27th and the latest has been Memorial week end. I just got my first male this year yesterday May 4th. Not sure if he is a keeper or if he is still migrating but my feeders will stay up.

I also grow oodles of plants that they use. This year I have over 50 salvias growing that I will be planting out soon as well as the ones that overwintered in the ground. Along with the salvias I have 3 honeysuckle vines and one crossvine now. I started out with inexpensive annual vines that I could grow from seed and each year have added a perennial vine. The Bee Balm is great but it doesn't bloom until much later in the season. Spring bloomers are very important especially when you are starting out trying to attract them during migration. Good spring perennials that will return each year are Native Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), Silene virginica and Silene regia and bleeding heart. Coral Honeysuckle blooms early and off and on all through the summer. I would avoid the Japanese honeysuckle as that is very invasive. If you have room for a Red Buckeye (small tree or large shrub) that is also an early bloomer that they use. You need to try and attract them with as many early plants as you can find or grow. Fuschia Garenmeister Bonstedt can be grown in pots or hanging baskets and are becoming available at garden centers now in the northern states.

mbuckmaster mentioned excellent plants also and he also mentioned the red gazing balls. 2 yrs ago I bought the very large red Christmas balls at the end of the Christmas season for the same purpose. The are a little smaller than a gazing ball but I hang them from my arbors or from hooks under the eaves of the porch where I will eventually hang baskets. I have used them two years now just for the purpose of luring hummers in spring.

Above all be very patient.

If you can get their attention early they may just decide that your yard is a good place to hang out for the summer.

Penny

You are more likely to get hummingbirds after about July 15th. By that date a batch of young should have hit the streets and adult migrants from further north begin to pass through. During nesting season hummingbirds are much less interested in peoples' feeders, by and large they are eating insects. The more rural you are the more likely you are to have birds during the breeding season. If you are worried about wasting energy then don't right now, wait for July.

I had my first last year...I saw one fluttering around my neighbors yard as I was already in the process of trying to attract them to my own yard, so I was excited. They were by her Salvia. I incorporated a lot of hummingbird plants in my yard over the past couple of years. I also have clematis, salvia and honeysuckle.

Then, not long after seeing it in my neighbors yard, I was watering my red petunias when to my amazement I see a hummingbird fluttering right next to me on my patio.

I put my hummingbird feeder out about a week ago, and I have a red ribbon leftover from my xmas decor, and I have that hanging from the feeder to attract them. I personally wouldn't wait until July, there are early migrators.

Here is a link that might be useful: Check this out

Just a suggestion for those who haven't seen their first visitors.
I think the first to my feeders were probably there for a day or two before I happened to glance out the window at the right time and spotted one. They may already be visiting you, and if you're not looking they will be back at the feeder and gone, without you knowing.
Pull up a lawn chair with a cup of coffe, and newspaper and wait thirty minutes. You might be surprised at who shows up.
Rob

I was discouraged as well. I put up the feeder April 12th and religiously tended to it and did not see my first until today......They will come!

Ken if it is any consolation I am still waiting too. My momentary siting on May 4th. must have been a migrant as there hasn't beena hummer anywhere lose to my yard since.

Penny

I put up a feeder on April 23, but I have not seen any hummers. I thought I might see one during migration, so it has been a disappointment, but I'm somewhat confident I will see one during mid to late summer when the garden is in full bloom. The last two years at least one hummer was seen feeding at some of my flowers, including some up by the house where the feeder is now hanging. With a little luck the same hummer will return and find my feeder, and then visit earlier next year... and bring a few friends.

My population overall has decreased for the last 2 years and yes I am discouraged.

Penny

Still discouraged! Though this morning I saw a hummer in my yard sitting on a branch. Flew right out of the yard. Still no activity at the feeders.

It was last June that I saw the first hummer in the yard and I got two feeders. That was the last time till today that I saw one. Nothing touched the feeders since the day I put the feeders up!

I am still hoping that they will start using the feeders!

With hummers you have to be patient and consistant and then eventually you will have them. Prime time is going to be august when migration is in full swing. This year for the first time I put out wild bird feeders and had quite a few, but when the adult male hummers arrived they didnt seem to like it and moved on , when in past years they parked in my yard. So I removed the wildbird feeders and in a couple weeks it seems the hummers were starting to stay in my yard. You see I have a small yard not a big wooded area like some do and there just wasnt room for wildbirds and hummers to co exist . Next year I will stop the wildbird feeding a week or two before they arrive.

Hey Hummersteve,
I always feed wild birds in my yard and still get hummers.
I live on a little over 3/4 acre and only use the front yard to feed because my dogs have their freedom in the fenced in back yard with the dog door.
I put out niger seed and safflower and get Cardinals, House Finches and Goldfinches. In winter I get Chickadees. And of course there are tons of Robins and a few Sparrows, Doves, and I get a Woodpecker too from a peanut feeder.
What kind of feed were you using?

I saw another hummingbird in my garden today. It did not go near the feeders, but it was fun to see. I live in NJ and the hummingbird had some heavy duty red on it and was darker than I have seen before, almost black. I looked at photos of rubyreds and it did not look like that. I thought there was only one kind of hummingbird in the north east?

Hopefully they will hit the feeders soon. :c(

Don't give up! I live in a row house in Philadelphia, my yard is only 18' x 28' and is land-locked by other yards; i was very surprised to see one a few years ago, and it's taken me that long to get them to hang around.

I start the feeders in the beginning of April, but I hang the first one from my second floor deck and tie some silk poinsettia leaves to it-- you can see it from 1/4 mile away, especially when there isn't much vegetation around. After i see one, I'll spread a couple more feeders down around the yard, then put out some flowers they like as they become available. THis has worked well, last year they were around so much by this date that i managed to take some really nice pics, but this year they seemed to be more active closer to the beginnig of spring for some reason. Guess that's what makes them really neat!

Anyway, now I'm learning about all the flowers and plants that they like (why i really joined this site, but the hummigbird discussions are a nice bonus) but that'll be for another thread.

Ken; that was probably a male ruby; they're smaller than the females and do appear darker.

Don't get discouraged! I've been there as well. I tried for years to attract them, I faithfully put the feeders out, although I was very unknowledgable about the whole process and didn't change the sugar water as frequently as I should have.

I started growing sweet peas because I hear that the hummers liked them. One afternoon, I was stringing up some twine on the deck posts for them to climb, and a foot in front of me, a female stopped and checked me out. OMG was I in heaven! When she left, I ran inside, made a new batch of nectar and cleaned out the feeder. Luckily for me, she stayed, and brought a friend or two. I don't get many, but one year I did know of 7, because I spotted 3 females at the same time and 4 males at the same time. It could've been more, but I'll never know. It was also the first year I had gotten "buzzed"; stuck in the middle of a chase. What a thrill! It's been downhill ever since; the numbers have dwindled for me.

I put my feeders out starting in mid April, although I don't normally see a hummer until Mothers Day weekend, when I had a male & female. Just as I thought they disappeared and moved on, they had shown back up again. I just got to witness my very first juvie this past weekend at the feeder. She was too short to drink/reach the ports (saucer feeder), but she just sat there, and didn't mind the humans gawking at her. She even let me walk away and get my camera AND take photos!

I may be braindead, but I recall you grow alot of monarda, a magnet for them. I find it hard to believe you don't see more activity! My Jacob Kline has dwindled off but a few tall blooms are showing right now, and my boy hits it every day around dusk. That's when my activity picks up; the female comes around all day but the male likes dusk.

Hey Tracey!

Thanks for the response. Yea, I have tons of monarda and they are blooming right now. I have not seen a hummer on the monarda nor the feeder. My wife saw one on the feeder for about 5 seconds last week. Neither of us saw one since 4 days ago. I am trying not to get discouraged any more. :c(

Last year the one I saw definately checked me out and it was exciting. Hopefully they will stick around.

Ken