Mother Nature's Way

We have a fresh-water spring and resultant branch on our property.
Every summer, it gets overgrown with some sort of greenery that is covered with orange blossoms.
I saw a lot of hummingbirds last summer feeding on those orange blossoms.
Thus, just a week or so ago, we got our first hummingbird feeder.
The orange blossoms won't be here for another couple months and I haven't seen so much as a bee around the feeder.
In contrast, just across the ridge, my aunt, who has kept feeders for several years, has been seeing hummingbirds for the last three weeks.

I hung our feeder about ten feet from the woods-line and about 75-feet from where the orange blossoms will be; will the hummingbirds find it ?

Thanks for reading.

I was reading somewhere that female hummingbirds who eat a heavy diet of sugar-water without getting plenty of supplementary calcium will lay soft-shell eggs that will not hatch, hence is why they have been observed eating dirt.

I do know that chickens, ducks, and such that lack calcium will lay soft-shell eggs, as I have seen them; the shell is just a flexible bag full of egg.

The remedy for this is to get a bag of crushed oyster shells from the feed store and feed them "free choice"; I know this works from personal experience.

I have also read that one should keep a bird-bath with some drain holes bored through it filled with crushed oyster shells available for all variety of birds; it is said that the oyster shells will draw more variety of birds than a regular feeder.


I share a back fence with a crushed limestone quarry, so there are probably no calcium deficiencies around here; but, I think I will put out some oyster shells anyway, just to see what happens.


But then, our local bird (and rabbit) population has drastically depleted since the cat lady moved in on our road.