Comments on: Homemade Hummingbird Nectar Recipe

By: Barbara Zimmrman

Barbara Zimmrman — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:52:55 +0000

Are chloramines, that will soon be used to treat water in my area, dangerous for hummingbirds.
I undersand that chloramines in water are dangerous for fish and dialysis patients because of the direct contact with the blood. Since the hummingbirds only drink the nectar, it appears that chroamines will not harm them???

One site on Chloramines, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine indicates:
“Many animals are sensitive to chloramine and it must be removed from water given to many animals in zoos.”

By: Jan Bohne

Jan Bohne — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:54:19 +0000

Try freezing your extra liquid in ice cube trays then store your frozen cubes in a zip lock freezer bag. You can put a few at a time in the microwave on defrost to melt them as you need them. Once they are almost half melted, take them out and let the remaining cubes melt on their own. The liquid temperature will be perfect to pour into your feeders.

By: Sheri Williamson

Sheri Williamson — Mon, 04 May 2009 04:58:18 +0000

Boiling isn't necessary, but it dissolves the sugar faster and can help slow spoilage if you use cheap store-brand sugar, which still falls within FDA guidelines but may have higher concentrations of contaminants than name-brand sugar. I microwave my solution until it's bubbled for a couple of minutes in hopes of killing most of the stray spores that might be in the sugar. (If the solution doesn't bubble, it may have superheated, in which case any jostling of the container could produce an extremely dangerous eruption of boiling liquid. If in doubt, leave it alone until it's cooled.) Whether you boil or not, spores of yeasts and molds, the most common and troublesome feeder contaminants, will be carried in on the birds' bills/tongues and by air currents. Your best defenses against premature spoilage are regular and thorough feeder cleaning, good-quality sugar, and clean utensils and containers. About chlorine: Its only proven health hazards in the low concentrations used for water treatment are for fish and people on dialysis, in which cases it enters the bloodstream directly. Besides, boiling doesn't remove the more stable chloramines used by many water utilities, only dissolved gaseous chlorine (and even that takes a while). I've been told by a chemist and fellow hummingbird enthusiast that the tiny amount of chlorine in tap water reacts with the sugar and is neutralized instantly, but of course it's still there in a different chemical form (though not necessarily an unhealthy one). If you're really worried about chlorine, try an activated carbon filter that attaches directly to your faucet (Brita is a popular brand) and change the filters regularly. Two kinds of water that are definitely NOT recommended for hummingbird solution are purified water, which has been stripped of its minerals, and hot water out of the tap, which can contain unacceptable amounts of lead leached from the plumbing and/or fixtures (don't use hot tap water for drinking or cooking, either). Sheri Williamsons last blog post..They don’t

By: Judi

Judi — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:05:24 +0000

Thanks for your reply, Lydia..

By: lydia

lydia — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:52:59 +0000

According to the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Institute, it IS necessary to boil the hummingbird nectar in order to kill the chlorine in the water and the bacteria in the sugar.