
Rinse well-at least three times-before refilling with your homemade sugar water solution. Avoid using dish soaps to clean feeders because they can leave a residue that's harmful to hummingbirds. Once a week (or twice a week in hot weather), clean your hummingbird feeders with a solution of one-part white vinegar to four-parts water. This should prevent one hummer from dominating all feeders. The Audubon Society recommends hanging feeders in the shade to prevent the sugar solution from fermenting if you hang multiple feeders, space them far enough apart so feeding hummingbirds can't see each other.

If you need to refill the feeders more frequently because hummers are emptying them, you should still clean them well each time before adding more nectar. In cooler weather, once per week is enough," says Tomcho. "In hot weather, the feeder should be emptied and cleaned twice per week. If you make a large batch, keep the extra refrigerated, but not for more than two weeks. How long will homemade sugar water for hummingbirds keep? That's a safer way to catch hummers' attention. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, so many feeders have a bit of red in their design.

So, better to keep it as pure and simple as possible, just sugar and water," says Greig. The answer is definitely no, don't add red food coloring to your hummingbird food recipe. "We don't recommend adding anything unnecessary to any bird food, including hummingbird nectar, because the impacts of most additives on bird health are unknown. Story continues Should you add red food coloring?
