Community Chat

[Nataliesgramma]

Do not use brown sugar, powered sugar, maple syrup, karo syrup, Splenda, Equal, Sweet'N'Low, or any other type of sugar or sugar substitute.

Only use Pure Cane White Granulated Sugar (the white grainy stuff) to make hummingbird food. The chemical makeup of other types of sugars is not the same as Pure Cane White Granulated Sugar and can cause illness and death to a hummingbird. It does not matter what brand of Pure Cane White Granulated Sugar you use, as long as it is the white grainy processed sugar.

[Sweetbay magnolia]

Also refrain from using poison (insecticides, herbicides, pesticides).  Our darling hummers feed from the same well.

[depglass]

I instinctively switched back to white sugar as soon as we could get to the store.  Better be safe than sorry.  Thanks for looking this up, people !  I hate to leave them without their food source, I don't know how dependent they get when the feeders run out.  They are back to sucking down two feeders worth in 36 hours, about two quarts total.  The birds seem to have grown a lot over the past two months.  Or are we just getting in bigger birds?