Homemade Hummingbird Food Recipe – Easy DIY

This hummingbird food recipe is THE best feed to keep those hummingbirds coming back year after year, simple and homemade with kitchen ingredients.  

We absolutely LOVE this hummingbird food recipe – I absolutely swear by it.  When we first moved onto our homestead, I bought a plastic feeder and the dyed red store bought mix, thinking it would help attract the hummingbirds.  But I was wrong. When I switched to making a homemade feed, we immediately noticed more birds coming back more often. 

Homemade feed (with just sugar and water) is the way to go.

This Easy DIY Hummingbird Food Recipe Is:

• All Natural
• Simple
• Made with Normal Kitchen Ingredients
• Easy
• Inexpensive
• NOT Dyed Red

A female hummingbird enjoying the feed about 1 minute after we put up this gorgeous new feeder.

How To Make Hummingbird Food

Skip the red dye mix all together, and make a simple sugar syrup for your birds.  I make an easy stove top mix (takes as long as the packaged stuff) which is ready in minutes.   I want to note that I am not an animal or bird expert, just a beekeeper and homesteader who has seen some major improvements to my bird feeders by making homemade feed!

Does Hummingbird Food Need to be Red?

While hummingbirds are attracted to the color red, there is no need to add dye to your feeders. This simple humming bird food recipe is clear, but if you want to add some color, you can choose a red glass feeder instead. That way, no harmful dyes are added to the feed!

A ruby throated male at our hummingbird feeder this spring!

What’s In This DIY Hummingbird Food Recipe:

• Water – I use a filtered water from our tap, we have reverse osmosis water in our kitchen (thanks to being on a well… we need it). The Smithsonian National Zoo says tap water is fine – but I know we have a higher amount of water from our well, so I choose to use filtered.
• White Cane Sugar – regular granulated white sugar: not organic, raw, or brown sugar or powdered sugar. I like this basic granulated white sugar, I use it in my hummingbird feeders and also in my beehives!

Do NOT add additives to your feed, it should be sugar and water only. 

When to Put Out Hummingbird Feeders?

I live in Massachusetts so I put my feeders out May 1!  I noticed that’s when we see the first sign of hummingbirds around the homestead.  One thing to note is not to keep your feeders out too long in the season as it could damage your feeders. The Mass Audubon Society says put them away before the nights get below freezing… which in Massachusetts can be anytime in the fall! 

As a benchmark, we put them away mid-October, but keep an eye on the weather in your area. If you keep the feeders out too long and the feed freezes, it can cause your feeders to crack or break.

What’s The Best Hummingbird Feeder?

With so many models, I choose the feeders that are the easiest to keep clean!  My hummingbirds absolutely love this glass feeder, which has metal flower ports, not plastic ones. I found the plastic ports are harder to keep clean, the ‘petals’ break, and grow brittle over time. Based on personal experience I found the glass feeders are much easier to clean and our birds seem to prefer these over the plastic ones.  Plus this feeder is absolutely beautiful, and I’ve even given them to family as gifts.

I have the ‘Amethyst’ one, but the red one is the same design, just a different color!

How Do I Make Hummingbird Feeder Mix?

1. Mix water and sugar, and stir until the sugar dissolves
2. Allow feed to cool to room temperature.
3. Add it to your feeder. Each feeder will be different, so make sure you read the directions.

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