[Barry Digman]

I'm to lazy to figure out how to do this, but I think that people who go to the trouble to feed hummingbirds would opt for hummingbird food made from local honey over sugar water or whatever is in that powered stuff you can buy.

I looked a little on the 'net for something like this and didn't see any.

Could such a product increase your sales?

 

[Jam]

Have you tried it to see how the hummingbirds take it? I would think some people would go for it.

 

[Barry Digman]

I haven't tried it, but I thought of it today while refilling the feeders. Seems like it would be a great product to add to a line.

 

[AltamontBee]

I'm not an expert, but I've always heard that you shouldn't use honey to feed hummingbirds. For example, on this site, among others:

http://fohn.net/hummingbird-pictures/hummingbird-food.html

I'm not sure why this is, but I'm going to be looking into it.

Jennifer

 

[AltamontBee]

After a little research, I found several sites that explained a few reasons why honey should not used in hummingbird food solution.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology does a nice job of explaining it at this site:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1181

Jennifer

 

[Beeslave]

Not to mention the chance of infecting someones hive with AFB!

 

[Chef Isaac]

you would have to water it down. they do not like it as sweet as bees do.

 

[Barry Digman]

Rats. Another million dollar idea down the drain...

 

[natureboy68]

in a word:

:no:DO NOT DO IT ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !:no:

got your attention?

hummingbirds CANNOT metabolize anything other than sugar syrup, you will kill the hummers with anything else. oh and dont bother with red food coloring, again the hummers aren't attracted to it, and the extra stuff is dangerous.

as long as your feeder has some red on it, even a red ribbon will work, they will go to it. and feel free to leave it up all year, it will not interfere with their migration. just make sure to clean it and replace syrup when it is hot out to prevent fermentation. and if you put more than one out, make sure the little buggers cant see the other feeder, they are VERY territorial!

here is the magic recipe: (should be easy for us beeks)
boil 4 cups of water, add 1 cup sugar (4 h2o:1 sugar), bring to a boil, remove from heat and cool. the boiling of the sugar syrup kills any mold spores, etc...but in the summers i just boil the water and add the sugar without boiling, because the syrup goes fast...we only have ruby throats here on long island, the rest of the country gets more variety!