As with most of my ideas this one was not mine but I “improved” it or in Princess’s words it doesn’t look like the picture – so sad. This idea came from the May 2010 of My Big Backyard, I thought this would be a great rainy day project or in our case a very hot day project. I also put this off because I needed a plastic bottle with a cap, which we never have. This weekend we finally finished our jug ‘o’ honey and had the prefect plastic jug for our hummingbird feeder.
Materials Needed:
Plastic jug with a screw cap
Drinking Straw (ours was from Wendy’s – and no I have no idea how long we have had it)
Exacto Knife (for cutting the hole)
Ruler
Puffy Paints
Permanent Markers
Craft Foam (optional)
Hot Glue/Hot Glue Gun (it just said waterproof glue – I chose this)
String or wire to hang feeder
Hummingbird Nectar (recipe included)

Note the straw the Princess is holding.

Checking for leaks.

The Princess was getting a little frustrated that you couldn’t see the Hummingbird with the magic markers.


We let the Puffy Paint dry and made the Nectar for the feeder (see below for recipe)
Stirring the sugar water
The Princess testing the sugar water.
Hummingbird Nectar:1/2 cup of sugar dissolved in 1 cup hot (boiling water) stir until dissolved. Add 1 cup of cold water and red or pink food coloring. We then poured the Nectar into the hummingbird feeder before I put the wire on it. So put the wire on it before you dump the Nectar in or you will have a HUGE mess! Hang outside and watch the Hummingbirds flock to your beautiful creation!
***** VERY IMPORTANT EDIT! So the Hummingbird feeder is leaking from the spout because I angled the cut down. Cut the straw up like on the inside and that should prevent leakage from the spout.
Fabulous idea. I had never thought of making our own. My boys will love this. Our last one (an expensive glass one) blew off its hook in a wind storm and broke. Now I can choose a bottle with a large enough opening to clean with a bottle brush, and it is not breakable.
Yes! Mine was an old honey bottle that I was able to stick a bottle brush down inside. We have made several – little ones from regular water bottles too. It is a great rainy day project for kids. My daughter loves hummingbirds so we are going to make a couple more this weekend.