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Old August 25th, 2017 #1
Susan
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Default Hummingbirds

I need to talk about something other than rallies and niggers and jews, so I'm doing a thread on these cute little guys. Anybody else feed and enjoy these tiny critters?

I'm a big gardener and have lots of plants and flowers that bees, birds, butterflies,and hummingbirds like. I started feeding them a few years ago and they are just fascinating to watch.

I used to buy the red colored sugar water to feed them, but the red dye isn't good for them. So here's a simple recipe to make and feed them:

Mix 1 part sugar to 4 parts water and bring to a boil. Let cool and pour a small amount ( no more than an inch or two inches deep per feeder) into each feeder and hang out on a tree branch, preferably in partial shade. If the solution isn't used up in three days, throw it out and replace with fresh solution.

You can go to your local bird supply store and buy a fancy feeder if you want to, OR you can go to Dollar Tree and buy feeders for a buck apiece. Dollar Tree has had these for several years every summer.

Hummingbirds are territorial, so if you want to see a lot of them in your yard, you have to hang a lot of feeders. But, you won't be disappointed. They appear from out of nowhere and will fly around for hours, sometimes buzzing your head. They are very entertaining. I like to watch them early in the morning before the sun crests the trees and it gets hot.

Hummingbirds usually show up around here mid July to mid August, sometimes earlier. They're at my house now.

For good info on them go to www.hummingbird-guide.com
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Old August 25th, 2017 #2
Emily Henderson
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan View Post
I need to talk about something other than rallies and niggers and jews, so I'm doing a thread on these cute little guys. Anybody else feed and enjoy these tiny critters?

I'm a big gardener and have lots of plants and flowers that bees, birds, butterflies,and hummingbirds like. I started feeding them a few years ago and they are just fascinating to watch.

I used to buy the red colored sugar water to feed them, but the red dye isn't good for them. So here's a simple recipe to make and feed them:

Mix 1 part sugar to 4 parts water and bring to a boil. Let cool and pour a small amount ( no more than an inch or two inches deep per feeder) into each feeder and hang out on a tree branch, preferably in partial shade. If the solution isn't used up in three days, throw it out and replace with fresh solution.

You can go to your local bird supply store and buy a fancy feeder if you want to, OR you can go to Dollar Tree and buy feeders for a buck apiece. Dollar Tree has had these for several years every summer.

Hummingbirds are territorial, so if you want to see a lot of them in your yard, you have to hang a lot of feeders. But, you won't be disappointed. They appear from out of nowhere and will fly around for hours, sometimes buzzing your head. They are very entertaining. I like to watch them early in the morning before the sun crests the trees and it gets hot.

Hummingbirds usually show up around here mid July to mid August, sometimes earlier. They're at my house now.

For good info on them go to www.hummingbird-guide.com
They are a rarity but I saw one the other day--so fast that I barely had time to realize that's what it was.
They almost never stop moving, only living around three years.
Interesting on the dye, just like food for kids they put artificial coloring into, marketing over health.

Fun fact: hummingbirds can fly in all directions, even upside down.

I noticed one year when I planted sunflowers I had a totally different type of bee coming around. Might be varieties on hummingbirds depending on which flowers, though sugar would be universal I'd think, lol.
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Old August 25th, 2017 #3
Mike in Denver
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Bees! I've seen very, very few bees in recent years compared to decades ago. That is, until just recently. I went for a walk in a nearby park last weekend and I saw lots and lots of honey bees. One bunch of flowers had so many bees on and around it I could barely see the plants. I started paying attention and all the way back to my house every flowering plant had many bees.

A very good sign. I've seen nothing like it for a long time. The only time I've been stung by a bee was when I was a kid, seven or eight years old, a little jerk, and purposely annoyed the bees.

Mike
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Old August 25th, 2017 #4
Susan
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Yes, Mike, apparently the honey bees have made a comeback. When I put up the first hummingbird feeders a few weeks ago, they were covered in honeybees!!! You could hardly see the feeders. The birds didn't show up for another few days and by then the first batch of nectar had gone bad, but there have continued to be honeybees everywhere.

Now, I also see the honeybees and the larger, darker bees (I guess they're all the carpenter bees) buzzing around my flowers all day long. But I called the bird store at the Mall of Georgia and the guy said yes, he had seen tons of honeybees and had been told they've made a comeback.

I live on the edge of woods so I get all kinds of critters. A few weeks ago there was a huge black rattlesnake lurking on the ledge at the top of my carport. I nudged him with a broom and he soon slithered away. Last year I disturbed a copperhead that was napping under some magnolia leaves on the ground and I raked right over him. I stood over him for an hour trying to get my nerve up to chop his head off with a shovel but I never could. Finally, he got bored with me and slithered off into a pile of mulch. lol

I don't know where you are Emily but you have to put up at least ten feeders in your front or back yard if you want to see more than one at a time. But, put them up and they will come.
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Old August 25th, 2017 #5
Emily Henderson
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike in Denver View Post
Bees! I've seen very, very few bees in recent years compared to decades ago. That is, until just recently. I went for a walk in a nearby park last weekend and I saw lots and lots of honey bees. One bunch of flowers had so many bees on and around it I could barely see the plants. I started paying attention and all the way back to my house every flowering plant had many bees.

A very good sign. I've seen nothing like it for a long time. The only time I've been stung by a bee was when I was a kid, seven or eight years old, a little jerk, and purposely annoyed the bees.

Mike
There are lots of programs in various States to get bees going, funding for Independent Beekeeping businesses. Without bees, no food.

I've been stung a bunch, luckily not allergic. I left a soda can sitting outside and took a drink and it was in my mouth, it had gone inside the can, and it stung my lower lip. Ouch. The few seconds of 'what the hell is happening?' more upsetting than the bee sting, lol.

Fun fact: eating locally made honey helps with allergies to local plants, if you have them. Honey trucked into Wal-Mart from another State won't do the trick.
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Old August 25th, 2017 #6
Emily Henderson
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan View Post
I live on the edge of woods so I get all kinds of critters. A few weeks ago there was a huge black rattlesnake lurking on the ledge at the top of my carport. I nudged him with a broom and he soon slithered away. Last year I disturbed a copperhead that was napping under some magnolia leaves on the ground and I raked right over him. I stood over him for an hour trying to get my nerve up to chop his head off with a shovel but I never could. Finally, he got bored with me and slithered off into a pile of mulch. lol

I don't know where you are Emily but you have to put up at least ten feeders in your front or back yard if you want to see more than one at a time. But, put them up and they will come.
Will do.

I've never seen a live rattlesnake but my back field at my prior location was loaded with the shed skin from their rattles. Only snake I saw was a huge 'rat snake' and from what I hear their bite is so 'dirty' it can kill. Shudder.

My fave observation was the barn swallows, they would get in my front porch awning every Spring and make their nests, but the cats in the area always managed to knock it down at some point, or another group of birds would take over their nest like gangbanging nigs, lol. Awful.

I tried to help them out one year by taking a pair of old jeans and some twine and making a 'nest' and screwing it into the porch awning, higher than where they'd been nesting.

The birds snubbed my nest but put theirs on top of mine, lol. That kept the cats out, but even at that the war between the two types of bird continued. The little brown and white birds would start out and get everything built up, then the blue/red/yellow ones one day would be sitting in the nest victorious, having thrown out the previous tenant and taken over their nest.
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Old September 7th, 2017 #7
Susan
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I'm not sure the scientific evidence definitively says that red dye is really bad for hummingbirds. I have a lot of hummingbirds in my apple tree now, where most of my feeders hang. There are a few on the other side of the front yard as well.

I have been watching them and they drink some out of the feeders but they don't seem to be drinking as much or as often as they have in the past out of feeders filled with store bought, ready made, red dye colored nectar.

So, I may go buy some red dye nectar and fill some of the feeders with that.

I've tried to get some pics of them, but they're just so little the images are too tiny and indistinguishable.

I wonder why the name hummingbird was settled on, too. They make a squeaking sound actually.

I guess hummingbird does beat "squeakers".
.
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Old February 19th, 2018 #8
Susan
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Actually, around here in north Georgia, you can keep one feeder up all year in case a few of these little guys hang around over the winter, according to the woman at the wild bird supply store.

I've never seen any of these little guys during winter months personally. The woman at the local wild bird store said to put up one or two feeders about mid March and just see if you notice any birds. As Spring goes on, add more feeders all over your yard.

I messed up last year and didn't put out enough feeders early enough, and I think the little guys went elsewhere. I only saw a small number compared to the year before when every morning there was an airshow for hours of 30-50 hummingbirds.

And despite the issues, I think I am using the red store bought liquid. They sorta turned their noses up at my homemade liquid last year.

Go to Dollar Tree now and buy you a bunch of their plastic clear and red feeders to hang in trees. If you're into feeding them, you can buy one or two bigger and fancier ones that cost more. Walmart carries a good variety of hummingbird feeders and liquid. Don't buy from a wild bird supply store unless you just have money to blow.

I like the wild bird stores but I usually buy items on sale or clearance from them for my garden. Two stores near me are Birdwatcher Supply Co. and Wild Birds Unlimited and they're both nice but items are not inexpensive.

There used to be a locally owned bird supply store near me but the owner closed it.
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Old March 3rd, 2018 #9
Adolf Goldbergstein
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What if some of these hummingbirds are Jews? Now you gave them the nutrition to multiply. The hummingbird consumes 1600 calories a day although as the years have gone by I've noticed that they are more lazy now. Often times now I'll see them perched doing nothing. Maybe that calorie intake figure is no longer accurate. Back before I suspected that some of them might be Jews, I used to put out some feeders. I just mixed 4:1 water to sugar into a gallon jug. No dye. They have no problem finding it. No boiling the water or sugar.
 
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