Make Your Own Hummingbird Feeders

To make hummingbird feeders, you can purchase pre-made plastic flower stoppers to put in glass bottles.. The metal I used is from a coat hanger. Just cut and bend it with pliers to the desired shape. I read in several places that the hummingbirds will be territorial about their feeders and like a place to stand so added a perch. Time will tell if the hummingbirds actually use it or not.

Recipe for Hummingbird Nectar:

1.  Mix four parts sugar to one part water.
• 4 cups water 
• 1 cup white granulated sugar 
2. Bring the mixture to a boil and then remove from heat.
3. Cover and cool.
4. Pour in feeder or store in the refrigerator.

Note: Do NOT use red dyes or any additives. Use only the regular white granulated sugar. There is no need to boil for an extended period of time. It drives off chlorine in the water and kills any mold or yeast spores in the sugar so the nectar will last longer.

Homemade Yogurt

By Peggy Greb, USDA, Wikimedia Commons

Note: A friend gave me this recipe for making yogurt at home. It is actually pretty simple. Be sure to keep it warm enough during the incubation period so the yogurt will grow. I will try to make it again soon and add some pictures! ---

Boil Milk & Add Yogurt

Bring the milk to boil in a large container that you plan to leave the yogurt in as it grows. Try not to burn the milk, but sometimes it is difficult. You can make a whole gallon at a time if you like. Use skim or whole milk or goats milk ;) - whatever you fancy.

Let the milk cool to 122 F, and add a cup of store bought yogurt to the hot milk. In the future, you can also use a dollop of a previous batch of yogurt you made. The streptococci and lactobaccili that make yogurt from milk quickly ferment the lactose sugar in milk leaving lactic acid waste product that causes the pH to plummet and causes the milk protein to coagulate. Boiling the milk kills off nearly all potentially competing species of microbes. The low pH inhibits growth of species other than the desired yogurt bacteria.