Do you have lots of hummingbirds where you are???

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We have literally thousands of hummingbirds here in SE Ohio, OK, so at least hundreds anyway, all in my yard at the two feeders and flowerbeds. I fill the quart and a half feeder twice a day, and the quart feeder at least once a day!!! Thank you Walmart for having sugar available in 25 pound sacks!

Does anyone know of a larger capacity hummingbird feeder available? Last year I got the largest one that Lowes had in the store, was supposed to last the average homeowner a week at a time, yeah right!!! I have looked at all the home stores around here, and have been looking in all the gardening supply catalogs, do you all know of any that hold more than a quart and a half? I would like to be able to at least get two days worth of nectar available to the hummers at a time.

I also have planted most of the flowerbeds with the hummers in mind, lots of coral bells ( their absolute favorite!!!), nicotinia, and Oriental daylilies; they like the oldfashioned pink coral bells best over the white and red ones I have, though.

Anybody else a slave tiny hovering flashes of green "magic"?

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2001

Answers

Annie, you are lucky to have so many! I assume they are ruby throats. I only have two, a male and a female, and they are so territorial, even dive-bombing each other. Do you have bee-balm (monarda)? They love that, too.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2001

I was sitting upstairs in my half-finished house the other day, enjoying the nice breeze coming in the East side where there's still no siding up (and won't be for awhile since I'm out of money, LOL!), when all of a sudden I heard the most awful, horrendously loud buzzing, and out of the corner of my eye saw the biggest beetle I had ever seen.

Well, it was actually a hummingbird. I keep seeing them up there, they fly through the house, in the E end and out the dormer window space. I'm not feeding them, though I keep meaning to, but they seem to hang around anyway. I'm not sure what they're eating but they must be finding something.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2001


I have two 1 qt. feeders in my yard that I fill once a week. Sometimes they're not totally empty, I like to keep the sugar syrup fresh. My hummers here all all ruby-throats. Not nearly as many as you have Annie! I'll have fewer feeding at my feeders once the wild jewel-weed blossoms. They love that!

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2001

I've got Ruby-throats too, and they're VERY possessive of the feeder. They seem to stake it out to make sure no other hummer can use it, so I have three around the yard, but they don't go down like yours do Annie.

The largest capacity one that I found in the Duncraft catalogue is a quart capacity.

Last year I was surprised to discover that the Hummers also loved the blossoms on the cucumber vines. Planted 'Cool Breeze' which had tons of flowers, and they were very attentive to them. They also liked the morning glories on the fence, and the anise hyssop.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001


In NC we had a ton of them! If you stood under the feeder, very still, they would buzz in your ears, thinking they were some kind of odd flowers! Of course they loved the wild trumpet vine. Up here in Virginia, they love the cardinal climbers we've planted, visiting each and every flower in turn. Funny little things!

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001


I just saw them show up today. They love my Rose of Sharon trees. I planted 25 or so, and the blooms just came out this week, neat huh. I need to get them some feeders going.

Did you see on the Amazing Animal Videos the guy who is the Hummingbird Man? That's all he does is fill feeders all day long. He hung a feeder on a hat he made, and he sits still on the porch, and they eat out of it right in front of his face. It was so cool.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001


Hi Annie,

Kathy in NE Ohio here. We have two standard sized hummer feeders and an oriole feeder. The hummer's feeders need to be refilled every two days. The oriole feeder not so often. We decided to put out more that one feeder because the birds will fight over it.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001


We have a lot of them for our area - I'm always surprized when folks DON'T have hummers at their houses! Ours have slowed down on the feed right now, as the trumpet creeper and honeysuckle are blooming. I planted my new perennial bed this year specifically with hummers in mind. We have 4 small feeders and one large one hanging on our front porch, which wraps around the south and west sides of our house - they do have to be refilled a couple of times or more during the day.

Annie - I've got a feeder "kit" that I picked up at a rummage sale. The feeder portion of it screws on to a soda bottle - like a two liter one. It ain't what you would call pretty, but it would hold a lot more if you needed to leave for a day or so. You are more than welcome to it; send me your snail mail addy via e-mail and I will send it out to you.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001


Thanks so much Polly, the addy is on it's way!!!

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2001

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