I have always admired one of nature’s amazing creatures the hummingbird. Nature’s ‘helicopter’ describes this delicate little bird that hovers, flies in reverse seemingly as easily as it flies forward and does it all with astonishing speed.

Around our yard they are very rare and when one is spotted our whole family crowds to the windows, noses pressed against the glass watching the little bird’s acrobatics as it searches the flowers for nectar.

I have been feeding birds for many years now but mainly sunflower seeds and suet cakes have been on the menu.

I refrained from grape jelly which I understand attracts the Baltimore Orioles which is another bird that I admire it for its beauty. But replenishing grape jelly in a bird feeder just seemed too much work for a lazy guy like me. Also since I am somewhat cheap think of the expense it would require to supply grape jelly all summer long especially if the jelly attracted large numbers of orioles.

Similarly establishing and maintaining a hummingbird feeder seemed way too complex for me especially since hummingbirds were such a rare bird in our area.

But then out of nowhere I suddenly became a hummingbird farmer!

A friend knowing we fed birds gifted us with a hummingbird feeder that included a bottle of red nectar mixed to the necessary ratio of four parts water to one part sugar.

I was becoming an expert on hummingbird feeding requirements almost immediately.

Since I shared my hummingbird feeder preparations with my Facebook friends I received many hints along the way. Most were very helpful and supportive.

The first order I received from Facebook friends was to ditch the red dyed nectar. I’m not sure why but the outcry was so forceful that I listened and used only a mixture of four parts plain water to one part sugar.

I received another suggestion to boil the water first I’m assuming to kill any microbes that would contaminate the sugar solution. Otherwise in no time the sugar water could become a container of cheap wine. 🙂

Intoxicated hummingbirds flying at the speed that they do could be the cause of some terrible hummingbird crashes and since I wouldn’t want that on my conscience I should be boiling the water first. But remember earlier I confessed to being a bit lazy and that won out so the ‘unboiled’ water became the four parts water in the hummingbird nectar.

I’m hoping that hummingbird crashes resulting from inebriated birds will have no standing in a court of law. 🙂

Still quite doubtful of attracting hummingbirds to my nectar filled feeder I placed it next to the sunflower and suet cakes outside our living room windows.

Then I the ‘doubting Thomas’ of hummingbird feeders began the waiting game. When would the first hummingbird discover the nectar filled feeder?

I was shocked! It was only a matter of minutes until a speedy little hummingbird zoomed in and hovered near the feeder as his tiny beak was inserted into the nectar filled feeder base.

Thinking perhaps it was a fluke and a lone hummingbird had accidently discovered the feeder I continued my surveillance.  Much to my surprise several different hummingbirds were zooming in and taking a quick sip and zooming off.

I had become a hummingbird farmer! 🙂

But then a major problem arose. Bees began to arrive at the feeder also. So many bees that the feeder openings to the nectar were completely blocked by honey bees. The hummingbirds weren’t able to feed.

Bless a Facebook friend who made a comment that they had bee guards on their hummingbird feeder to keep the bees out. So off I went in search of my iPad and googled hummingbird bee guards.

It wasn’t but a few seconds until a hummingbird feeder with bee guards popped up on my iPad screen.

By now I began to realize feeding hummingbirds was not a job for the feint of heart!

It was the weekend and we needed to get out of town anyway so Kathie and I jumped into our car and made the sixty mile trip to a Walmart in search of hummingbird bee guards.

We headed for the garden section of Walmart and, yes, I did cave early in our search for hummingbird feeders and asked for directions. 🙂

In no time we had located the feeders and they were beauties. Especially since each feeder was outfitted with bee guards over each of the nectar openings.

Returning home I excitedly prepared a fresh batch of hummingbird nectar and filled the new hummingbird feeder. I removed the feeder lacking the bee guards and replaced it with the shiny new bee guarded feeder.

Hooray, it was working. There still were a few bees flying and landing on the feeder but not like the original masses that had gathered before.

The hummingbird feeding began to go normally and it should be smooth sailing from now on.

Becoming a hummingbird farmer taught me some valuable things; no red dye in the nectar, four parts water to one part sugar and bee guards are necessary.

During these learning experiences another question occurred to me. When hummingbirds hatch their young do they feed them only flower nectar? Seems to me if that was the case the protein needed for the little birds to grow would be lacking.

We must thank Google again as I discovered that the mother hummingbird eats insects and then  regurgitates the insects with the nectar into the baby birds. No arguments from the little birds about eating from them. 🙂

So that ends the story on how I became a hummingbird farmer. All because someone was thoughtful enough to gift me a hummingbird feeder.

We have been visited by a skunk several times over the last couple of weeks. If someone gifts me a skunk feeding trough I think I’ll politely decline. Four parts water to one part sugar are much more appealing then what one skunk feed trough could produce! 🙁

Until next time.