Save Spice Jars To DIY Mini Feeders Hummingbirds Can Enjoy

Pollinators encompass the broad range of bugs, birds, small mammals, and lizards that help spread pollen between flowering plants so they can create seeds and reproduce. It's incredibly important to help maintain pollinator populations that support local ecosystems the world over, and one of the biggest, most notable families in North America is the hummingbird: crucial pollinators for over 20% of local plant species, according to the University of California. Planting a diverse, native-friendly garden with varying sources of nectar and pollen is the best way to support pollinators writ large, but hummingbirds in particular need a lot of help. Hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism on the planet, visiting upwards of 2,000 plants each day to maintain their active lifestyle, so you can supplement their diet by putting up a variety of homemade hummingbird feeders created using old spice jars.

DIY hummingbird feeders are one of many upcycling projects with household items that could make your garden into a haven for pollinators, but it's a particularly cheap and simple idea that can have a huge impact. Hummingbirds are attracted to the red color of most feeders because they will naturally gravitate toward red, orange, or pink flowers with tube-shaped structures. This is what makes household items like old McCormick spice jars a particularly attractive DIY hummingbird feeder, as they already have a red cap with small holes similar to a plant's pistil that can be hung from any branch outside using something as lightweight as a piece of twine. Just be sure to thoroughly clean out the small jar first to avoid any spice cross-contamination.

Typically, a multi-station feeder is preferred over a single glass tube or spout when buying supplemental pieces for your pollinator garden. This is because hummingbirds are highly territorial; these fleet-footed avians will drive even fellow hummingbirds away from shared food sources, and fight off much larger birds using their talons and needle-like bill. Despite having multiple holes through which to shake out spices, an old spice jar is deficient in that it can only be accessed from one central point at the top. However, the relative size of each individual jar means it would be easy to hang multiple cheap, household item DIY hummingbird feeders all around your garden to stave off this competition and keep visitors circulating around different flower beds.

It's also easy to set up a number of DIY hummingbird feeders using spice jars because their food is exceptionally quick to produce. Hummingbird nectar is just a solution of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, which you can make by just boiling water, stirring in the sugar, and then letting it cool. Using a mini spice jar with its label removed also means you'll have a transparent glass container, which makes it easy to keep an eye on the nectar level in your feeders so you can refill them as necessary (or clean out any moldy sugar solution) — a task that's markedly simple thanks to the way you can just unscrew the lid off of a spice jar.

Another benefit of installing your own DIY hummingbird feeders using simple household items is that they will encourage repeat visitors. Hummingbirds have great spatial memory, and will return to the same sugar water feeders after their yearly migrations. Still, don't just rely on your DIY spice jar feeders; keeping up a strong pollinator garden is important to give hummingbirds a variety of food sources for their mealtimes every 10 to 15 minutes, as well as to attract other living food sources. Nectar only makes up about 20% of a hummingbird's diet, the rest will be made up by spiders and insects.

In fact, if you're planning on DIYing your own hummingbird feeders to keep these pollinators coming back year after year, you should avoid using pesticides that might kill off insect food options. Putting petroleum jelly around the feeder's entrance and on the string it's suspended from will do plenty to deter pests that would otherwise crawl into the sugar water solution, and if anything you're better off luring those protein sources to nearly compostable detritus like banana peels. Of all the neat products that might encourage hummingbirds to nest in your yard, old McCormick spice jars might not be the first things that come to mind. But if you put in just a little bit of work, your spice collection can pay dividends by letting you house a variety of hummingbird feeders all around your yard, which is as much a benefit to the local ecosystem as it is for you getting to enjoy a show with these marvels of nature.