Traveling light in your RV doesn’t have to mean giving up your love of feeding those spectacular hummingbirds. The Internet is full of homemade hummingbird feeder designs but many take up too much precious storage space. Here’s one that even a Scamp trailer owner can find room to take on the road. This ingenious concept and instructions come directly from fulltime RVer Tracy Morrow.
The perfect homemade RV hummingbird feeder.
DIY RV Hummingbird Feeder
Hummingbird feeders are made with bright red parts to attract hummingbirds. The bright red cap on spice jars makes a perfect feeder. Since they’re plastic, the feeders are unbreakable as Tracy discovered once when she dropped it out the RV’s window.
I bought twenty 1 oz spice jars off Amazon for $16.99,” says Tracy. Buying them in bulk allows her to give these inexpensive and adorable gifts to her RVer friends. The homemade hummingbird feeders for RVers aren’t very complicated to make. Tracy says “I used a small drill bit to put a couple holes in the top. And did a quick wire wrap to hang it. They’re super easy to clean too!
DIY hummingbird feeders don’t get easier than this.
Make a Homemade Hummingbird Feeder for Your RV
What you’ll need:
- Plastic 1 oz spice jar
- Wire that bends but holds its shape
- Round nose, flat nose and needle nose pliers and a flush wire cutter.
You can buy these jars on Amazon.
How to make your feeder:
- Cut 8” of wire to wrap around jar and make an ‘L’ shaped hook.
- Starting approximately 2” from end of the wire use flat nose pliers to shape a loop that fits tightly around the jar. Fold this 1” of wire around itself. Now the wire is secured on the jar.
- Staying as close as possible to the jar and using the flat and needle nose pliers bend the wire to make a 90-degree angle away from the jar.
- From your previous bend measure 1/2” and bend wire vertically.
- Starting at the end of the wire make a loop with the round nose pliers.
- Cut a second piece of wire at least 7” long.
- Using round nose pliers make a small hook at one end of the wire. (This will hold the feeder)
- Make a large loop on the other end. (Use this large loop to hang feeder from a suction cup or tree.)
- Using a small drill bit put a few holes in the lid of the spice jar.
Use heavy gauge craft wire that holds it shape.
DIY Hummingbird Food Recipe
To make hummingbird food use:
- One part white granulated sugar
- Four parts boiling water
Directions:
- Stir until sugar dissolves.
- Let cool
- Make sure your feeder is clean then fill and serve!
- Leftover food can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
- Clean the feeder every few days with hot water and a splash of vinegar.
- Rinse well.
Hummingbird Feeder Tips
- For the health and safety of hummingbirds, follow these DIY hummingbird feeder tips by All About Birds.
- Bacteria and mold grow in sugar water, and sugar ferments, so hummingbird water should never be left out for more than two or three days, and changed daily in very hot weather.
- Never use honey to make hummingbird food – when honey is diluted with water, bacteria and fungus thrive in it.
- Avoid locating your hummingbird feeder in direct sun, which causes the sugar solution to spoil rapidly.
- Hummingbirds are usually extremely territorial around feeding sites, and so four tiny feeders with one feeding port each, set in different trees or at different windows, will attract and maintain more hummingbirds than one large feeder with eight ports.
- When camping in bear country, bring your hummingbird feeder in every night or you might wake up to a very large, furry visitor.
