Community Chat

[depglass]

We are 30 miles from stores.  I ran out of white sugar a couple days ago and substituted brown sugar in our two feeders.  Same sugar/water ratio of 4 to 1.  Well, they loved it, much more activity than normal.  Now we are back to white sugar and they have calmed down.  I've never put dye in my syrup, so I'm hoping whatever makes brown sugar brown didn't hurt them. 

[Marp]

Brown sugar contains molasses which is high is iron.  Too much iron can hurt hummingbirds.  Stick with cane sugar and water.

[ItsME]

I'm not an expert, but I don't think it should be a problem.  The difference between brown sugar and white sugar is that brown sugar has molasses.  Molasses is a dark, sweet, syrupy byproduct made during the extraction of sugars from sugarcane and sugar beets.  It's richer in flavor that white sugar.  Should be safe for the hummingbirds, and quite a treat for them and you!

[simplyfriends]

I googled it because I was curious too .... answer is NO - do not use brown sugar

[ItsME]

Okay, @Marp & @simplyfriends.... you sound like you know a lot more than I do!  Have go keep the birds healthy and safe!  Thanks for your reply.

[oceantown]

The instructions that came with our feeder say to only use white sugar, and white cane sugar is recommended.

[Imaoldhippie]

Thanks for googling the information.  I hope the OP sees this.  Again to much wrong info and it can do harm to wild life and humans.

@simplyfriends

[riley1]

PLEASE do not use anything other than white sugar when making hummingbird food. 

[NickNack]

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@simplyfriends wrote:

I googled it because I was curious too .... answer is NO - do not use brown sugar

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@depglass  Wanted to make sure you saw this.

[pupwhipped]

NO!!!