I found the following information on Facebook.
☆☆☆☆☆PLEASE READ CAPTION☆☆☆☆☆
The store bought nectar is junk!! Food coloring is petroleum based ☠ that is not good for humans, let alone a tiny bird that weighs less than a nickel! It causes a slow death. ☠
It's filled with chemicals, dyes, preservatives and petroleum based.
I used the red stuff 4 to 5 years ago. The minute I found out how deadly it is to hummingbirds, I changed out the nectar immediately!! Cleaned my feeder real good and I Made my own with sugar water only.
Sugar water is all they need. 4 to 1 ratio .
Example... 4 cups water to 1 cup pure cane granulated sugar. No dyes needed.
Boiling is not necessary but it is a personal decision based on your quality of water. Sugar will dissolve in cool water. Just like when you order unsweetened iced tea at a restaurant then add sugar.... It dissolves. Or like when you make lemonade... you don't boil your water for the sugar to dissolve. Chlorine evaporates once it exposed to the air. If you choose to boil because you have concerns about bacteria and contaminates in water, don't boil more than two minutes. This will prevent chemicals such as flouride from becoming even more concentrated in the water. Also measure water AFTER boiling and add sugar then, not before. This will ensure an accurate sugar/water ratio.
Boiling will not give your feeder extra hang time. The nectar becomes contaminated as soon as the birds beak touches the nectar.
●● DO NOT USE ANYTHING BUT PURE CANE SUGAR! ●●
Raw, organic, turbinado and brown sugar are harmful to hummingbirds. You should only make your hummingbird nectar with granulated white sugar. Cane sugar is preferable, but beet sugar is also acceptable. Don’t use confectioner’s sugar either, as it contains an anti-caking agent.
Raw, turbinado and organic sugar is made by taking sugar cane and squeezing out the juice. The juice is then evaporated and spun in a turbine (hence the name “turbinado”) to produce the sugar crystals. These crystals are a golden color and are rich in vitamins and minerals. This is great for humans, but NOT for the hummingbirds. One of the minerals these sugars contain is iron, and hummingbirds have very little tolerance for it. Brown sugar is white sugar that has had molasses added to it. Molasses is rich in iron. Agave nectar also contains iron. Not good for the hummingbirds at all!!
Hummingbirds, being very tiny birds with fast metabolisms, must eat a lot of food to survive. Since they are so small, they are susceptible to excess dietary iron buildup in their system. The oversupply of iron is stored in the liver and is toxic to liver cells.
DO NOT USE HONEY!
A honey water solution served up in hummingbird feeders can quickly become toxic and deadly. Honey rapidly ferments and also cultures a deadly bacterium. Contrary to popular belief, honey is not "more natural" than the cane sugar that is sold as white sugar. Honey has been chemically altered by honey bees: it is flower nectar and whatever ever else the honey bee ingested, digested, and spit back out again. Honey is nothing like the sucrose found in flower nectar and white sugar.
Again, plain white table sugar dissolved in water in a four-to-one solution is about as close to real flower nectar as you can get.
TO CLEAN YOUR FEEDERS:
Be sure to use hot water and white vinegar when you clean your feeders. Rinse Well!!
🚫 NO SOAPS or detergents of any kind! 🚫 It leaves a residue the birds can taste and it may cause them to get sick.
Clean the feeder each time you take it down to put fresh nectar in it.
Once a month you can use one part bleach to 10 parts hot water. Be sure to rinse well.
Use an 🐜 ANT MOAT.
NEVER USE ANY GREASE, OR PETROLEUM PRODUCTS ANYWHERE NEAR THE FEEDER, POLE, ETC. An 🐜ANT MOAT is very easy to make and safe for the hummingbirds. Just fill 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up with plain water. Since ants can't swim, they can't get to your feeder. I have ants in my yard, but never have had a 1 on any of my 22 feeders.
An 🐜 Ant Moat is a reliable first line of defense against ants attempting to infiltrate hummingbird feeders. When filled with water, the 🐜 Ant Moat forms a barrier that keeps ants away from the irresistible nectar of the hummingbird feeders.
Here is a video I made last year to MAKE AN 🐜 ANT MOAT.
https://youtu.be/p1sr5CCuCko
👉🏼🐝FOR BEES.🐝
https://www.thespruce.com/keeping-bees-away-from-hummingbird-feeders-386570
👉🏼☠ABOUT RED DYES/THE DANGERS OF! ☠
👉🏼http://www.cancerdefeated.com/popular-food-dyes-carry-profound-cancer-risks/2572/
https://fieldguidetohummingbirds.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/solution-evolution-part-1/
👉🏼http://wildbirdsunlimited.typepad.com/the_zen_birdfeeder/2010/07/top-5-reasons-to-not-use-red-hummingbird-nectar.html?cid=6a00d83452296269e201b7c7bf6c75970b
👉🏼http://www.hummingbirdsociety.org/hummingbirds-101
👉🏼http://www.hummingbirds.net/attrfeed.html
👉🏼http://juliezickefoose.blogspot.com/2015/04/red-alert-for-hummingbirds.html
👉🏼http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11294979?dopt=Abstract
👉🏼http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6636206?dopt=AbstractMore
👉🏼http://www.paghat.com/reddye.html
👉🏼http://www.foodsafetynews.com/tag/food-dye/#.WG1ffIWcFVI
👉🏼http://www.hummingbirds.net/dye.html
👉🏼http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/07/popular-food-dyes-linked-to-cancer-adhd-and-allergies/#.WQddMIWcFVI
👉🏼http://itchmoforums.com/pet-food-questions-and-researching-foodsingredients/food-dyes-linked-to-cancer-adhd-allergies-cspi-pdf-t11451.0.html;wap2=
👉🏼https://cspinet.org/eating-healthy/ingredients-concern/food-dyes?gclid=Cj0KEQjwuZvIBRD-8Z6B2M2Sy68BEiQAtjYS3Ds0u0k88vIYwVOIhzuPWapl1tNSQ38NdavVXPtH5kIaApCo8P8HAQ
👉🏼http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/food_news/the_hidden_health_risks_of_food_dyes
👉🏼http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/24/are-you-or-your-family-eating-toxic-food-dyes.aspx
👉🏼http://www.carwinpharma.com/food-dye.html
👉🏼https://www.allaboutbirds.org/feeding-hummingbirds/
👉🏼http://www.worldofhummingbirds.com/index.php
👉🏼http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/87/2/267.full.pdf
👉🏼 MIGRATION:
https://www.hummingbirdcentral.com/hummingbird-migration-spring-2018-map.htm
Help Save Our Hummingbirds 💜
#SaveOurPollinators
