Every year I go through this dilemma - to put out sugarwater feeders for the hummers or not. This year I chose not to and the reasoning can be found on the journal page of my July 7 Come Stroll article. After publishing this choice, I still worried (as I do every year) whether or not this is the right decision and so this year we decided to go to an authority on the subject, Mr. Lanny Chambers creator of the marvelous hummingbird site titled what else but, HUMMINGBIRDS! http://www.derived.net/hummers/welcome.html
I asked Lanny to read my story and advise us on our decision and sure enough, our expert has changed our minds. With his permission, I reprint his valued advice below.

"A few thoughts:
Hummingbirds are as territorial over a good garden as they are over a feeder, and will spend all of their time defending a patch of prime flowers by chasing away rivals. This is perfectly normal behavior, especially for males, and females may choose mates to father their chicks in part for their proven ability to seize and defend territory (they want the strongest genes for their offspring). It's easy to miss territorial behavior in a garden, but it's there.
A garden is an excellent way to attract and observe hummers without the chore of keeping a feeder clean and fresh (not to mention the joys inherent in gardening!), and some hummers will take advantage flowers but never visit a feeder. I freely recommend gardening to folks who don't feel up to rigorous feeder maintenance. However, feeders can be most welcome to birds first thing in the morning, when they are very hungry after a foodless night, and just before dark, when they need to eat enough to last until morning; most flowers do not contain much nectar at these times, so a feeder can bring in a lot of birds that don't use it much during the day. I have both feeders and hummer-friendly flowers, myself.
Feeder syrup (a 1:4 mixture of sugar and water) is equivalent to flower nectar in all important respects. Natural nectars vary in the small quantities of minerals and amino acids usually present, but the only constituents common to all nectars are sugar (almost always sucrose) and water. Plain sugar syrup is not unhealthful to hummingbirds, which derive their real nutrition from the small insects and spiders that make up half their diet."

Thank you Lanny, for filling in the blanks, so as to help others make their choice too.
Maggie

Here it is hummingbird season again! I enjoyed reading this post again this year.

Well, you may not get blooms as early as us MK, but you sure get hummers a lot earlier. We may see a scout or two in spring, but the migration doesn't usually get down here until the end of June or early July.
Get that digi ready, aimed and fired