Physical and Chemical Properties of Various Sugar Water Ratios for Hummingbird Feeders

The abstract below was presented during the 6th Biennial International Hummingbird Banding Workshop held at Dan Brown’s “Hummer House” ranch near San Angelo, TX, during 2005.

Physical and Chemical Properties of Various Sugar Water Ratios for Hummingbird Feeders

Ross Dawkins¹ and Brent Ortego²

¹Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Angelo State University, Box 10892, San Angelo, Texas.

²Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 2805 N. Navarro, Suite 600 B, Victoria, Texas

Most people using sugar water for hummingbird feeders use a recipe ratio involving volumes of water (solvent) to volumes of dry granular sugar (solute) or they measure the final volume of the solution instead of added solvent. In either case it is not easy to compare one recipe to another as far as energy content or total amount of sugar.

We have made up a series of sugar (sucrose, Imperial Pure Cane granulated) solutions using the volume % of water and the volume % of dry sugar. We have then measured the density, molarity, molality, Calories/ gallon and freezing point of various ratios. Density (or the similar specific gravity) is easily measured in the field. The molarity (M) is a normalized method of measuring the moles of solute per volume of final solution. This makes comparisons between solutions easy. The molality (m) measured the moles of solute per kilogram of solvent. This helps calculate colligative properties such as freezing point or boiling point of any solution. From the molarity, the number of Calories per gallon can be calculated. This can be converted to calories or to joules easily.

The results are in tabular form and interpolated into graphic form.

Table of Characteristics

V%water/ V%sugar	Molarity	Molality	Freezing	Density	Energy
	M	m	pt.oC	g/mL	kCal/gal
33/67	2.31	4.97	-9.2	1.256	11.96
60/40	1.20	1.66	-3.09	1.132	6.21
75/25	0.695	0.828	-1.54	1.077	3.60

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