TUSCUMBIA-Now that I’ve gotten you using sugar and water in your hummingbird feeders, wait, you still aren’t using that red dye stuff are you? Listen now, it’s not good for the little hummers, and will cause tumors of the tongue. Make your own by using 1 part of sugar and 4 parts of hot water. Cool and place in your feeder. The red on the feeder itself is enough to attract hummers.
Now that the hummingbirds are back into the US, nest and fledging, everyone is 
putting up feeders. With each feeder being guarded by a little green monster, I have put out additional feeders. Since I put up those additional feeders I have seen a big increase in the number of ruby-throated hummers. One adult male has positioned himself between two feeders and is wearing himself out trying to guard both of them. While he is off chasing an interloper, two more will hit the feeders he is guarding. Right now the areas where I have my feeders look like one of those aerial dog fights you see in the movie. One chase landed up flying through my legs while I was walking. Another chase landed up with the chasee making a U turn at the last second, while the chaser didn’t and got it’s beak stuck in a screen. It was pretty miffed at his situation, and I decided to run for my camera, as I thought no one is going to believe this instead of helping him. Just about the time I got back, he popped himself out and flew off. I kid you not, it really happened.
With the abundance of fire ants in my area, I like many was having problems with ants getting into the feeders and ruining the sugar water. I priced some of the store bought ant barrier containers and they were very expensive. I found one at the end of the season at a very deep discount. I looked at it and said to myself, I can make this. I came up with a couple of designs for making home made ones very inexpensively. One design uses a heavy gauge wire which I also had on hand for making homemade plant tags and now is my go to moat.
Other materials needed are cap off of a spray can, a nail or ice pick or drill bit, a pipe or broom handle, pliers, and water
proof caulking. If using a nail or ice pick, don’t hammer through the lid, use a back and forth gentle push until it makes the hole or else you’ll knock a big chunk out of the lid.
Now for those of you too young to remember what an ice pick was used for, I’ll save you the trip to Google. Back before there was such a thing as refrigerated trucks, Dad used to buy 50# blocks of ice at either the Tuscumbia or Sheffield ice plants depending on which milk route he was running. Milk was in bottles and he would stack crates up and use an ice pick to break up the ice and put chunks of ice around the bottles. He would stack the crates up four or five high and then cover the complete stack with an insulated tarp. Back before refrigerators, folks had wooden ice boxes lined with tin and the block of ice would slide in the side. Ice was delivered by an ice wagon.
One advantage of using wire is that if you don’t quite get the hole in the center of the cap, you can bend the wire after hanging to level the cap. Now for the OSHA required information ‘Safety first now’. Wear gloves and eye protection in case you get wild cutting the wire and poke yourself in the eye. Punch a hole in the middle of the cap with either an ice pick or nail. At this point you younger folks can Google ice pick.
Cut a length of wire around a foot long and file down the sharp edges on each end. 
Wrap one end around a pipe or broom handle, rod or whatever you have to make a loop. Take the pliers and twist the end of the wire around the length of wire. Now at this point, you are looking for a band aid and wishing you had listened to my safety message. Push the other end through the cap, make another loop as you did with the first end, caulk and let dry and put to use. Now if you are looking at two loops trying to decide how to thread it through the cap, undo up to step two and start over. When hanging the moat on a feeder, you want the cap to turn into a cup and hold water.
One suggestion for plants to feed hummingbirds is a turks cap lily. I have three different varieties of them and they are just a magnet for hummers and butterflies. Red salvia and cardinal flower are another good choice for attracting hummingbirds.
Now last part of the instructions read paragraph number one over again and repeat after me ‘Do not use the red kool-aid.
