Yesterday I just happened to come across a discussion about hummingbird feeders. Mainly about whether or not the liquid should be boiled or not before it goes in the feeder.
I have always boiled it. There were a number of reasons. To make sure the sugar dissolves properly, that it stays dissolved and so that the syrup will be as sterile as possible when it first gets put in the feeder. But I was surprised that many people don’t bother to boil their hummingbird food, and there were some very reputable websites that were agreeing with them.
According to most of these websites, the standard recipe for creating syrup for hummingbirds is to use 1 cup of water to 1/4 cup of white sugar. You can go a little to either side with the sugar, but that’s the ratio they recommend. Great. Exactly what I have done for years.
But they go on to say that it really doesn’t need to be boiled. You can just put the sugar and water in a closed container and shake until it dissolves. Or use hot water to start with. But boiling doesn’t really do much.
Now you make think, what about the sterility part? Does that make a difference? According to these websites, if you boil your hummingbird food it will kill and bacteria and bugs that live in the water, so the food is sterile. If you pour it into a feeder that has been sterilized. And, it will only remain sterile until the first hummingbird dips his little beak in there. After that, all bets are off as far as sterility goes in the feeder.
It only makes sense. They go around sticking those beaks into everything. And if you’ve ever noticed, they also have really long tongues, which they could be sticking in some of that syrup too. So on the first visit to the feeder you can be getting bits of pollen or anything else that can be stuck on a birds beak, and maybe even a bit of hummingbird spit in there as well.
The point is, it’s more important to make sure the feeder is cleaned well before each refill, because there is no hope of keeping all contaminants out of there.
So for forty years or so I have been carefully boiling my hummingbird food for no good reason. Although I may continue. Just because I like the ritual.