You may be right. Many years ago, it was decided that bears eating cookies along the roadside or from the trash cans buried in the campgrounds at Yellowstone was not good for them. Don't know what happened to the bears, but there are plenty of Buffalo along side the road and plenty of elk. The feeders are just for your pleasure so that you can watch the birds. They will be just fine if you do not feed them. They will just go elsewhere. All hummingbird experts that I have heard from say that a 4-1 mix is just fine. If everyone stopped feeding the birds tomorrow, I'm sure they would start scrambling for food. I used to think it strange that hummers would get nectar from a cigar plant by the feeders or a wild thorney bush that the bees loved about 50 feet further. My feeders are not up as a supplement to the flowers, they are up strictly to get hummers there. Hummers will get their nectar where the least resistance is. If only one feeder is up and an aggressive bird is protecting it, they will go somewhere else (to a flower or to the neighbors). A youngin will follow the mom's lead, but I can always tell a youngin when they try to get nectar from the picture of the flower on my feeders. I have not heard anything about flower nectar being better for the birds. It is 102 degrees here and all are suffering, including the plants.

The hummingbirds that visit us will go to the flowers they like first and most often. We have feeders mounted on a privacy screen on our patio. I also plant Cypress Vine to grow onto the privacy screen. The hummingbirds love the Cypress Vine and visit lots of the flowers before perching on the feeder to drink. Sometimes they ignore the feeder entirely, preferring the flowering vine, the butterfly bushes and other plants we have in our gardens. I don't worry about them becoming dependent on us. We have the feeders up and keep them fresh so we can see the hummers, and also to help give them a source of food late in the season so they can fatten up for their migration. We keep one feeder up year around in case some are slow leaving, and also to help the first arrivals since they come through here in March and there are not very many flowers blooming then. I read once that migrating Hummingbirds remember exactly where they have found food in the past. I believe it.

Thanks Paul and Opal!

The first question I might ask is are the flowers you have contain nectar, not all flowers do or not enough to interest hummers. The more nectaring flowers you have probably the better as far as getting hummers to feed from them. Look up online a list of the top hummer plants there are many good ones.

As for the feeder question I believe a more important question might be are you keeping your feeders clean. If a person does not clean their feeder regular and thorough it can develope mold and then you talk about a danger to hummers. I have not talked to a licensed bander who does not use the table sugar method in feeders nor do they consider it harmfull unless as I mentioned about not keeping them clean.

If mold developes and you can see it easily just soak your feeder in a solution of 1:10 bleach to water for about an hour then rinse it out well with cold water then air dry.

Do you have a Hummingbird plant list?

Here is a link to a nice list. I have found that the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds in our area love a shrub called Flame Acanthus. We have several. Also, Hummers visit our Gailardia (Blanket Flowers) frequently. I didn't see either of those on this list, but they both do well in zone 7b, and are drought tolerant once established so I thought it worth mentioning.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plants that attract hummingbirds

Thanks for the list Opal,
I have 25 of those plants. Just waiting for alot of them to get going. Its been a wet, cooler spring.