Besides not knowing the words, hummingbirds can't do dishes either,
so once a week I'm scullery maid to a pile of nectar feeders gluey with
drowned ants, moldy sugar, and germs that God made invisible because He
knew we'd freak if we could see them. Bird systems are tiny, and feeding
responsibly means washing their dishes, especially in very hot weather.
Black mold grows most cleverly in the crevices beneath the feeder "blossoms." Do scrub there, topside and underside; it's the nectar-feeder equivalent of
washing behind your ears.
 |
| Washing aerial tableware. |
Glass feeders last longer than plastic and get visibly clean. Use
regular dish detergent and a dish brush. Remove traces of mold inside the bottles with an old, clean toothbrush. For stubborn goo I dunk
glass pieces in an extremely mild bleach solution, but one must then
rinse rinse very very well and allow the feeder to air-dry completely so
the fumes dissipate.
- After handling bird things, anytime, wash your own hands really well.
Homemade nectar: Add one part sugar to four parts boiling water and
stir until dissolved. Boil three more minutes. Allow it to cool. Do not
add color; they don't need it. Never use any sweetener except white
sugar. (Honey is lethal.) Proportion three parts water to one part white
sugar if you want more hummers or you want your hummers livin'
large.
Honeybees without flowers will find what they can; in this case, my hummingbird feeder, where they apparently get tipsy and drown in the sweetness they were after. (One of the red metal "blossoms" on this copper-colored feeder is missing, leaving the hole. But they drown in the other feeder too.) The hummingbirds are now in their final week of residence -- the latest I've ever seen one is October 1 -- all females (for no reason I can figure out), dodging the crawling crowds of honeybees in their efforts to perch and sip. When the hummers are gone for the season, their five-month residence over, I take down the feeders, clean and store them, and cry. Grief is the price one pays for love.
