How many hummer plants do you have? If I just had a feeder and no plants I would have seen far fewer hummers... especially August and September when many of the birds are juvies who ignore the feeder. If I was tired of cleaning and refilling my feeder and decided to take it down I'd still see plenty of hummers at my lady in red salvia. If seven months of cleaning/refilling burns you out, how about just doing it for August and September. You could also just put up one or two feeders instead of several. I currently only have one.

... I may be adding a second feeder next year to hang outside the window, but, as much as I've enjoyed watching the hummers this summer, I'm sure I'd get tired of maintaining three or more. I'd have to get a heck of a lot more hummers to even consider it. I'm definitely getting several more flowers next year including black & blue, cuphea, agastache, monarda, cardinal flower, and coral honeysuckle. All of the new plants should keep the hummers humming in my yard with little maintenance needed.

To each his/her own, but Ive only had feeders out for 5months now, no hummers for 5 days and the rule of thumb is to leave a feeder out for about a month after the last hummer you see in case a straggler comes by. Last year since I had hummers till oct 18 it made perfect since to leave a feeder out till thanksgiving, but this year maybe not. If I do not see another hummer most likely no feeders will be up by oct 15.

If I had birds like you do Steve it would be a no brainer. :c)

Hi Hawkeye,

I do have a lot of perennials, one bed is 10 feet by 30 feet and although not every flower growing is favored by them a lot are. I also have other beds with flowers too, plus a bunch of crab apples trees and azalias, wild honeysuckels(yellow type) etc.

I figure "if" I do decide not to put out the feeders next year that I would still see some due to the flowers.

...and I was conisidering adding another feeder next year (I only have 1). Mainly to see if I can separate a couple of dominant males.

I only get about 4 hummers max. but I had the nectar plants b4 I started to hang the feeder. When I noticed they were frequenting my butterfly garden (most butterfly nectar plants attract hummers, too) that is when I started supplementing with a feeder. Right now hummers are using the white cypress vine, red pentas, lantana 'Miss Huff' hardy here), Texas Star hibiscus, Verbena bonariensis, morning glories, asters.

Susan

Every year I just wait until I notice hummers at my flowers or another nearby gardener says she's got them, THEN put out my feeder. I take it down when I'm nearly sure they're all gone, and sleep well knowing that there's still lots of flowers if any stragglers pass through. I don't get masses of hummers at my feeder, but I do consistently have a few to several hummers in my garden at various points the whole migration season.

My hummer population varies from year to year but I maintain between 4 and 6 feeders all season long. I start by hanging one feeder out front usually towards then end of April and then add one out back a week or so afterwards. As I start seeing activity, I add more. I don't fill my feeders. I only use between 2 and 4 ounces of nectar in my feeders depending which ones I am using. My test tube feeders hold about 2 1/2 ounces so those are almost filled to the top and those get refilled daily later in the season. One year I had so many birds I had 6 feeders going and some were being emptied on a daily basis.

Penny