Feeders
Got an email from someone named Linda S. asking about what the proper mixture for hummingbird feeders is. I’ve been told to use about third of the mix as sugar and have heard of others that use ½ and ½ water. Linda’s concern was that her friends get more birds than she does but was worried that too much sugar for them may be detrimental. Google to the rescue as I did a search on ‘hummingbird feeder ratio’ and came up with this page from the Bird Watchers Digest: http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/faq/hummingbird_answers.html
Myself, I’m in the middle of both camps and use a little more than a third (less than half) and get lots of ‘em around here. According to BWD, there really isn’t any scientific evidence as to how much sugar becomes detrimental to the little guys but the 4:1 ratio is real close to the actual sugar content of flower nectar.