If you have an urge to get fancy with how you feed hummingbirds, do it with the feeder itself, not with the contents.
(Par-A-Sol hummingbird feeders at Amazon.com)
Some recent searches on the theme of what to put in hummingbird feeders:
“can you make hummingbird food with brown sugar”
Please don’t try this. Brown sugar contains molasses, which is rich in iron, and excess iron can be deadly to hummingbirds. Use that brown sugar to make some delicious chocolate chunk blondies or pineapple upside-down cake instead.
“can you make hummingbird nectar out of organic cane sugar?”
“organic evaporated cane juice hummingbird nectar”
Again, the light beige color of semi-refined sugars, including organic sugar and “evaporated cane juice,”* indicates the presence of potentially toxic iron (though at a lower concentration than in brown sugar). Until some company comes out with a fully refined white organic sugar, it’s safest to stick with non-organic white sugar. GMO sugar is a non-issue, but some people report that hummingbirds prefer pure cane sugar to either beet sugar or blends of the two (which are usually just labeled “sugar”).
“should you feed hummingbirds high fructose corn syrup”
No. HFCS is made up of two simple sugars, glucose and fructose, which are components of sucrose, the most abundant sugar in the nectars of hummingbird-pollinated flowers. Hummingbirds get all the glucose and fructose they need by digesting sucrose, and HFCS has a greater likelihood of contamination during the manufacturing process.
“how much orange extract to put in hummingbird nectar”
NONE. That product appealingly labeled “Pure Orange Extract” is 79% alcohol plus a little water and orange oil squeezed from discarded orange rinds, not the good part of the fruit. It’s not nutritious, it won’t attract the birds, and it may harm them. At best it will probably attract bees. Seriously, don’t do this.
“can i use vanilla in hummingbird feeders”
*sigh* “Pure” vanilla extract also contains alcohol—not as much its orange counterpart, but still the equivalent of 80-proof booze. Hummingbirds don’t pollinate vanilla orchids, nor do they need flavored sugar water to encourage them to visit feeders. Again, you’re more likely to increase your bee problems, which won’t be popular with your hummingbird clientele.
“is koolaid safe for humming birds”
NO. Kool-Aid contains petroleum-based synthetic dyes, artificial flavorings, preservatives, and other things that are at best useless and at worst harmful to hummingbirds. A glass of Kool-Aid every now and then won’t kill you or me, but what do you think would happen if we ate 100+ packages of the dry mix every day? That’s the equivalent of a hummingbird’s daily intake, minus the water and sugar (the only ingredients in prepared Kool-Aid that hummingbirds actually do need).
This feeder’s contents are colored with organic tart cherry juice, not synthetic dyes. The birds prefer plain sugar water, and the juice makes the solution spoil faster, so I don’t encourage this.
“can u add [fruit juice] to hummingbird food”
You can, but again you’re asking for trouble, including premature spoilage and bees. If you’re thinking of substituting fruit juice for dye in plain sugar water, the least problematical kind of juice isn’t available in the average grocery store: it’s a concentrate strong enough that just a couple of teaspoons will color an 8-oz. feeder. I’ve tested several concentrates, and the one that has the best color and least objectionable flavor to hummingbirds is tart cherry. Black cherry doesn’t give as bright a color, and the birds didn’t like cranberry (it’s probably too bitter). Because adding the concentrate will provide more nutrients for yeasts to grow on, you’ll need to clean and refill the feeder more often to keep ahead of spoilage. As with the flavor(ed) additives above, you may notice more interest from bees and wasps, which love fruit juices. Plain sugar water may not be as pretty, but it’s easier on your time and bank account with fewer problems.
More than a century of backyard experience and scientific research into hummingbirds and their flowers has established beyond doubt that a fresh solution of white sugar in good-quality water served in clean feeders is all you need. No dyes. No flavors. No “supplements.”
* All cane sugar is produced by evaporating water from cane juice. This is just a snake-oil name for cane sugar that still contains a lot of its original contaminants.
Related posts:
Feeder Solution Evolution Part I: The basics
Search of the Week: “if refined sugar is so bad for us, then why do we feed it to hummingbirds??”
Search of the Week: “hummingbirds won’t eat instant nectar”
Beet juice in hummingbird feeders? NO!
Life, Birds, and Everything 
Should I be feeding the huming birds in the winter months when the temperature is 26 degrees at night
Only if you want to help them survive.
Along the west coast all the way to BC we have Anna’s Hummingbirds all year long. Sometimes snow and freezing weather hits and they MUCH appreciate the fact we keep their feeders thawed. Before people realized these hardy little birds were here they often did not fare well. They breed from Nov-ish- to May. The only birds I know of who mate this late and early in the year. Please if you have hummingbirds in the cold feed them! … Where are you?
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What’s the ratio for sugar per water? Also shld I keep any extra nector cold?
The quick-and-dirty answers are “4 parts water, 1 part sugar” and “yes,” but I recommend that you browse these resources for more in-depth information on feeding hummingbirds:
“hummingbirds/feeding” category on Life, Birds, and Everything
Hummingbird tab on my Web site
Of course, I’d also be grateful if you were to invest in a copy of A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America, which includes more extensive coverage of how to attract and feed hummingbirds in its introductory chapters.
A question that I can’t seem to find an answer on is whether brewing some dried hibiscus flowers in the sugar water is attractive and/or harmful for hummingbirds? Since living hibiscus is one of the flowers that attracts hummingbirds, I’ve wondered about steeping the dried hibiscus that can be found in Mexican food grocery stores and also as an herbal tea.
The short answer is that no one knows the what effects the pigments in Hibiscus sabdariffa, the species whose calyces are used to make jamaica and similar beverages, might have on hummingbirds. Some hibiscus are pollinated by hummingbirds, but this isn’t among them. It’s native to Africa, not the Americas, and the red pigment is in the plant’s tissues, not in its nectar. With almost any imported “herb” there’s a risk of pesticide contamination, which is a much greater concern for creatures that can drink up to five times their weight in liquid in a day than it is for us. There’s also the issue of what else leaches out of the flower parts during steeping. I make jamaica at home and notice that slimy strings sometimes form in the liquid; at best that sliminess might interfere with the birds’ drinking, at worst it might contribute to more rapid spoilage. H. sabdariffa is a better “natural” coloring choice than beet juice, especially if you can find a certified organic source, but no coloring at all will always be the safest and most natural choice.
Could red glass marbles or large beads be placed in jar? The red woukd be attractive and alert you when feeder is low.
If your feeders are so far from your house that you can’t see the liquid level, they’re too far from your house. Move them closer or use binoculars (which you should have handy anyway to see what’s visiting your feeders).
But to answer your question, glass doesn’t float, so marbles or glass beads aren’t going to help you monitor the liquid level. Some plastic beads/balls float, but, like their glass counterparts, they aren’t going to be food-safe and may contain lead, plasticizers, or other dangerous chemicals that could leach into your sugar water (with the risk increasing the longer you leave your feeders out).