After seeing so many cute hummingbird feeders made of wine bottles shown in trendy catalogs that cater to wine enthusiasts, I was hooked and wanted one. However, with a price tag upwards of $50 before shipping charges, I decided to try and make my own while saving a few dollars.
Materials
Because hummingbirds are attracted to red, I started out by purchasing a couple of interesting red bottles at my local Hobby Lobby. One bottle cost about $3.50 while the other was a little more than $4.
You can also use repurposed bottles, such as water bottles, salad dressing bottles or the most obvious and usually the most decorative, wine bottles. Unfortunately, none of my wine bottles were red and I couldn’t find any red plastic bottles in the grocery store that would work either. Instead, I opted for a large bottle of Perrier water and once it was empty, I added the green plastic bottle to my supplies. You can go through your pantry and see if you have any bottles that can repurposed for a hummingbird feeder once the contents has been used.
From my local ACE Hardware store, I purchased two 24-inch pieces of ¼-inch copper tubing from the plumbing department. This cost about $14. In addition, I purchased a 39-foot roll of red 12 gauge aluminum craft wire from Amazon.com for $10.39. This is optional. You either need the copper tubing or the wire, whichever you prefer. You don’t need both.
Amazon was also my source for the actual hummingbird feeding nozzle and I purchased a package of 12 for $12.95.
Decide if you’re going to buy your own hummingbird nectar to fill the bottles or if you’ll make your own homemade concoction, which is less expensive.
Here’s a recipe for hummingbird nectar to try:
1 cup granulated white sugar and 4 cups hot boiling water.
Bring four cups of water to a boil. Pour into a large pitcher and add one cup of sugar. Mix together until sugar is dissolved. Place the mixture in the refrigerator to cool overnight. Once cool, you have a pitcher of hummingbird nectar that can be added to the bottles.
Assembling Your Hummingbird Feeder
1. There are two options—You can either use the 24-inch piece of copper tubing or you can use a piece of the thinner and less expensive 12 gauge aluminum craft wire. Either way, bend the wire around the bottle to make a cage.
If you are using the ¼-inch tubing, simply bending the tube around the bottle will be easier. You can essentially wrap the tubing around the bottle in a spiral just once, leaving enough of the tubing at the top to form a hook.
If you are using the craft wire, encasing the bottle is trickier. You'll have to run a few lengths of wire up the bottle, cut the wire, secure it and then repeat the process until the bottle, when filled with nectar, is secure. Finally, make a hook for hanging.
2. Next, fill your bottle with hummingbird nectar.
3. Finally, place one of the stoppers in the bottle. HINT: My stopper initially leaked all the nectar with the slightest movement of the bottle either from wind or brushing against it. To avoid this, tip the nozzle upwards at a 45-degree angle. The birds will still be able to access the liquid but it won’t drip out.
Optional decoration: If you want, you can decorate your bottles with strings of crystal beads or other shiny, jewelry-like embellishments from the craft store and glue them onto the bottle or string them on the aluminum wire.
In the end, my total investment was $45 and I made three hummingbird feeders and have enough materials (excluding bottles) to make nine more. So if I don’t buy any more decorative bottles, but repurpose wine bottles, water bottles and the like, I could make a total of 12 hummingbird feeders like you see here for an average cost of $3.75.
Of course, if I buy fancier, colored glass bottles, my cost goes up, but it is a far cry from a $50 hummingbird feeder sold online.
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