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Re: Hummingbird food



>Is there any difference in quality for hummingbird clear nectar mixes
>between a sucrose and dextrose combination vs 100% sucrose?  Thanks for
>any information.
>
>Marsha Stephens
>Chatham County, NC
>stephens@mail.fpg.unc.edu


*********

MARSHA . . .

Virtually every hummingbird expert agrees that for summer feeding the 
best (and cheapest) hummingbird mix is plain old table sugar mixed 
4:1 water:sugar. You can even cut back to 5:1 or 6:1 and save a 
little money.

Commercial mixes that make a big deal of adding vitamins, other 
sugars, etc., are just a way to make you feel guilty enough to pay 
ten times more for what you can buy off the shelf at Bi-Lo or Food 
Lion. The only thing most commercial mixes really offer is 
convenience.

Our feeders are just supplementary food sources. Hummers get all the 
additional nutrients--or other sugars--they need from flower nectar 
and tiny insects.


Cheers,

BILL
-- 

BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

Please visit our web sites at http://www.hiltonpond.org and
http://www.rubythroat.org

"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."					BHjr.