I keep track of when I see the first hummingbird each spring, and it’s usually during the first week of May. However some migrating birds have arrived surprisingly early this year, so over the weekend I scrubbed my hummingbird feeders and filled them with fresh sugar water just in case.
It only takes a few minutes to boil tap water and mix in some refined white sugar. The ratio is 4 cups of water to 1 cup of sugar. Then let the mixture cool before filling the feeders. One batch will fill two feeders of this type.
Hummingbirds migrate over thousands of miles and are hungry when they arrive in your neighborhood. Plus there aren’t as many flowers blooming right away in early spring, so hummingbird feeders can act as an instant “fast food restaurant” for them.
I clean and refill my feeders once a week unless we’ve had unusually hot weather. Then I clean it more often.
As a bonus, Black-capped Chickadees and American Goldfinches like to use the water in the ant moat as their drinking fountain.