I have a dedicated toothbrush for cleaning.

Yay, John. I've been putting up hummingbird feeders here in Tx for years now and this was one of the worst years for ants getting in them. Had to put moats on all of the feeders! Even the feeders with build in moats were being attacked by the ants. The water is evaporating too quickly. Sometimes they would even make an ant bridge across the water and more ants would walk on the "ant bridge" to get at the nectar!

These moats have been working fantastic! The water stays inside the dome for days without needing to refill. Found them online.



We're at the peek of hummingbirds season now with many migrating south already. There's a group of them that spend all summer here so I have quite a few daily visitors but the numbers have increased over the past week or so.

Those glass ones are pretty, Christine!! Obviously the birds like them too. Wow!

I wonder if the nectar can stay fresh for more than a day or two? If it starts to smell fermented, it's not healthy for the birds. I always thought mine did that after 2 days, max when it's hot/warm out.

They say every 2-3 days, the cooler it is, but it should be changed daily 90+.

But, if yours is in the sun all day, I think it may ferment faster than if in the shade. I think.

I change mine every other day when it gets 90+, but mine is more in shade.

You kind of get a feel for it by sight when you've done it enough times. You can eventually tell the difference between crystal clear and slightly cloudy looking.

I have enough problems with fire ants at my house. Ants got all over my feeders at my last house. Here at this house, I've decided to just go 'au naturel' and plant more Turk's Cap (red) bushes. The hummers are all over them 3 x daily and they are drawing in butterflies as well. Best of all.............NO ANTS! NO SUGAR WATER CHANGING!

I currently have probably 7 bushes of the peach and red Turk's Cap scattered on 3 sides of my yard and am in the process of trying to root some more to plant out. Want to root some to take down to our rural cabin, too.

Oh, Peggy, I love your avatar! It's not easy getting a picture like that! The hummingbirds love Turk's cap! I have it growing here too. My wish is to have enough flowers growing to accommodate all the hummingbirds that visit here. I will keep trying...

But there are more hummingbirds than flowers. I've been making 18 cups of nectar every day this past week, filling the feeders twice a day. I think they are moving south right now.




The sulpher butterflies especially love the turk's cap too.


Turk's Cap in October -

...18 cups?! Holy smokes!

Wow! There are more hummers in Christine's yard at 1 time than I've seen in years.

wildflowers said:Oh, Peggy, I love your avatar! It's not easy getting a picture like that! The hummingbirds love Turk's cap! I have it growing here too. My wish is to have enough flowers growing to accommodate all the hummingbirds that visit here. I will keep trying...

But there are more hummingbirds than flowers. I've been making 18 cups of nectar every day this past week, filling the feeders twice a day. I think they are moving south right now.

The sulpher butterflies especially love the turk's cap too.

Thank you, Christine. Yes, I'm seeing large Sulphurs on my TC everyday, too. The Swallowtails are drawn into the yard with the TC, but don't hang out on those bushes per se. Those prefer to hit on the two Abelias along the driveway. But I'm just happy the Swallowtails do flit around every day on one or the other of these bushes. Love watching them, even if they rarely land. They're too fast to snap a pic of unles they land.