MISSINGROSIE said:

The way I see it...when trying for a ratio.......the two elements...are what they are and the components aren't separated into parts.

like if I had to feed a baby bird one ounce water for every 4 ounces bird...I would not say..
Well...that bird is already partly comprised of water along with bird flesh...

So that concentrate once made is a new ' something " and should not be broken into its parts.
Maybe I should not have helped with that homework!!!

Your example is apples and oranges. You are talking about feeding a bird, we are talking about mixing it's food. Look at it like this. You have a 4 ounces bird you need to give 1 ounce of water, but the instructions say add 10 drops of vitamins and 6 drops of minerals per ounce of water. You fill a jar with 10 ounces of water and add some vitamin and mineral drops ahead of time to store, but you don't add all the necessary drops. When it comes time to feed your bird you take out 1 ounce of the mix but you know you need to add some more drop to bring it to the correct amount. Don't you need to know how many drops were in the 10 ounces of water before you can know how many drops to add to the 1 ounce? That is what this discussion has been about. We are premixing part of the humming bird food in advance, so you need to know how much of each component is in the premix so you can get the final mix accurate, or you risk over or under feeding the birds.

I get it. Understood it perfectly. Truly. Worked in medicine for 35 years..understand the chemistry.

My point (offered loosely - in jest - and really refering to the difficulty following the thread ) being that when we have general directions that say brew up a concentrate from A and B......that new resulting brew becomes C.... and then the directions say "" now add D to C " -- it is not typical to go backwards and break down C to ascertain if it already has D in it......you just accept C for what it has morphed into.

But you are correct. It is not scientific. The math is not there.

Couldn't you just use CORNSYRUP to make hummingbird nectar? Seems like it would be a lot less trouble than boiling, freezing, thawing, storing and measuring. I think the fact that it is "readily available" to use at a moments notice would outweigh a more expensive cost, especially for those avid hummingbird lovers. I don't no much more about the ingrediants other than that it's a sugar syrup to make candy with. Maybe it's not good for birds cause its made from corn sugars?

ChristinaLafferty said:Couldn't you just use CORNSYRUP to make hummingbird nectar? Seems like it would be a lot less trouble than boiling, freezing, thawing, storing and measuring. I think the fact that it is "readily available" to use at a moments notice would outweigh a more expensive cost, especially for those avid hummingbird lovers. I don't no much more about the ingrediants other than that it's a sugar syrup to make candy with. Maybe it's not good for birds cause its made from corn sugars?

This site says no.
https://fieldguidetohummingbir...

Here's my solution (no pun intended). No concentrate. Just 4:1 ratio. While I don't cook as much any more, I still know how to boil water without burning it. However, I should put a label on this pitcher that I keep in the fridge. Last time my daughter came to visit, she poured a glass, drank it, and gagged for an hour!

Not if she lived in NC..she would think it was just right for sweet tea! Just add that tea bag!

Sheesh! All this over a little hummingbird nectar. Y'all can make it how you want to. But this works perfect for me. And whether I use it as a concentrate just stopping with the 1-1 ratio then diluting it when I need it with three parts water or if I make it for immediate use with 1 part sugar and 4 parts water, any way you slice it folks, there is STILL ONE part sugar & FOUR parts water in the mix. I only bring the water to a boil and turn it off stirring to melt the sugar. I don't boil it down.

donnabking said:Sheesh! All this over a little hummingbird nectar. Y'all can make it how you want to. But this works perfect for me. And whether I use it as a concentrate just stopping with the 1-1 ratio then diluting it when I need it with three parts water or if I make it for immediate use with 1 part sugar and 4 parts water, any way you slice it folks, there is STILL ONE part sugar & FOUR parts water in the mix. I only bring the water to a boil and turn it off stirring to melt the sugar. I don't boil it down.

Actually Donna mixing one part of your mix with three parts water will not give you a 1 to 4 ratio. That is what all the discussion was about. But my calculations were of also. Ron (Rattlebox) found my mistake and corrected it. If you want to get a true 1 to 4 ratio you need to add 1 1/2 parts concentrate to 3 parts water. Otherwise you will be giving the hummingbirds a weak solution.

Wow, I'm sitting here reading all these posts on my Hummingbird Concentrate, and I see where I have told Jay on May 28 that I needed a good laugh, that it had been a rough 6 weeks. It really had. And I am sitting her right now on Dauphin Island with my loved family, reliving the reason for that rough 6 weeks as we all continue to heal. Reasons this post, and laughing again, as I did then. I told Jay to read my name , take notice, as it says I'm the Hooterville Hillbilly, lol.

You see, last year, this week, on April 13, my dear Brother in love awakened @ 3AM with terrible facial seizures and was carried via ambulance to ER, where they misdiagnosed at first that day, & let him go on to work. But the seizures hit again in a few hours and he was again transported to ER and they found the cause of the seizures. Two small tumors on his brain behind his right eye, combined they were the size of a dime. 2 days later, they did biopsy & brain surgery & got all they could & it was Glioblastoma. In 2weeks & 3 days it had grown to fist size after surgery, so they did brain surgery again & got all they could again. Told us it was the fastest growing tumor they had ever seen. We lost him August 26. Even on top of that, his Mom got sick 4 weeks later and was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer that had spread all over her. She passed the next week. We are sure she had known she had this and just refused to tell anyone or go to the doctor, Charles Dad, her husband was gone, I think she was ready to go too. We have been hit very hard. This island was his favorite place to come. We have felt him here with us this week.

But Jay, I now understand your calculation, I just always thought my 1-3 was correct because there was 1cup of water in it to 1/4 cup of sugar, then adding 3 cups of water to that to me would still be the same ratio, or if you just wanted 1 cup of food, 1/4 c concentrate to 3c water, but I will now use your dilution. Thx.

So sorry for your losses, Donna. Glad you're on the island and feel his spirit.

Thank you GrammaChar. We really did feel him there. It was a wonderful week. Sister has rented the same house again and is going back again next month. This time the children will be going with her, their daughter, who went with us also (she's still in college) & their son, wife & 5 year old grandson. It was a lovely house on the beach in a nice gated community. I hope they feel him there as we did.

I can't believe it took 2 pages of posts to make a cup of hummingbird food. Mrs has been doing it for years and it only takes her about 5 minutes . She must be doing it right since the hummers show up every year for the sugar/water mix. Most of the ones that visit our neighbors feeders end up on ours too.

I've always boiled 3 cups of water and then stirred in 1 cup of sugar. Let cool and then pour into cleaned feeder. I usually have lots of hummers even when all the flowers are blooming. My Mother used to have so many feeders hanging on her porch, she'd have to refill them daily and she never boiled her water. Just mixed it up with tap water until the sugar dissolved, hung it up and watched them come and go. She had a hummer that stayed the winters in her garage. She'd go out and make sure it had a feeder full that didn't freeze. God bless her.

That is heartwarming!

How close am I to 1:4 required mixture if I use 1 oz. (2 Tablespoons) dry sugar and top off with water which dissolves sugar making total of 4 oz. mixture? Have been using this ratio to feed same hummer for more than 6 years. No boiling required and only Pyrex measuring cup to clean. Feeder size is "4" oz. Sugar I use seems to have larger granuals so use slightly rounded Tbsps.

OK, had to sleep on it and got it figured out. The ratio turns out to be 1:3.875 which is about 3.25% stronger sugarwise than 1:4 which is acceptable ammount of difference. So with compensation for sugar size probably getting close to 1:3.75.

Just curious to what actual ratio I was using. Not a big deal. Thanks for whatever. Bye