Our little obnoxious Hummingbirds co-exist quite peacefully with the butterflies in my garden. I say 'obnoxious' because we have several 'families' of Hummingbirds and it is quite obvious who the kingpin is! He even squeaks at me when I have let the juice get low in the feeders so I have to quickly get to cooking the stuff in the kitchen for him and his little group! Nah...I wouldn't worry about having the two gardens together. Butterflies DO need to have a sunny spot, though, and by having all that shade you are bound to find that you won't be getting many butterflies so move the plants! Go for it!

I think where the confusion is, is at what temperature is the liquid too cold for your hummingbirds to drink “comfortably”, without stunning themselves. I’d say 40’-37’ degrees to be safe, is a good number to fall back on temperature wise. Really, It’s the temperature outside that should dictate, on how you take care of your hummers. Winter time for the last 7 years now. As a Rule for me... since I feed all year round, is if temperatures keep dropping below 37’, this is what I do. 1.) I wrap my feeders in winter, with double red wool socks, during low temperatures, that stay at around 32’ or lower. It helps to keep them from freezing throughout the day. Less work for me. 2.) 37’ or below, I bring my feeders in every night, and set them on my counter in a cool spot. By morning they are room temperature, and then I rehang them right before sunrise. 3.) If it’s colder than that... say around the 20’s all day, I put hand warmers under the socks, to keep from freezing, or I will rotate my eight feeders, by taking one or two inside to room temperature and so on. 4.) I can’t state it enough.... clean... clean... clean your feeder regularly! Summertime First good News is that your refrigerator temperature of hummingbird liquid WILL NOT stun your hummingbirds, when you take it out to feed them... unless your refrigerator is freezing your milk (good indicator), IT’S NOT too cold to use as is. In the summertime the cool liquid from your refrigerator is perfect! They’ll flock to it! (Make sure that your stored liquid has a secure lid, so your not getting any smells or bacteria coming from your refrigerator mixing in with your liquid) Note: I hang in really shaded areas, clean them now every 2 days in the summer, with light soap and water. And depending on how many birds I have, I only fill them less then half full. Otherwise, I’m just wasting liquid that I pour out every two days. If temperatures exceed 65’-70’ You have to make sure you find a really shaded area, so their liquid isn’t directly in the sun and heating up throughout the day, otherwise It will go bad. So, check on it, on extremely hot days... you might want to change it out more regularly in temps that are continuously above 90+ Hummingbirds are susceptible and die of a slow, agonizing death from beak rot, from dirty feeders with bacteria living in the feeder where they drink . After reading heartbreaking literature about cleaning, I have made some changes. I take that opportunity, to wash my feeders every 3 days during winter and every 2 in summer. Some clean every 5-7 days in winter and summer.... that is wrong... wrong.. wrong. I wasn’t that bad on my cleaning schedule, but I should have been cleaning them more frequently, especially during summer! Hope I helped with some of the questions on this feed. here are two good sites https://www.seaandsageaudubon.org/BirdInfo/BirdProblems/HummingbirdCare.pdf https://www.worldofhummingbirds.com/nectar.php

"Plant more flowers" is very very good. Heres an example for what happened in my yard. Last year during migration and before hummers were draining two 30oz glass pp209 feeders in two days time. This year I added many more flowers in my front flower bed to where it is nearly doubled plus the 4 feeders and the concentration was in the front yard. In the rear, I hung only one 30oz feeder never having to fill it in fact half-full was plenty. I am in the habit of just filling the feeders with what they will use in a 2-3 day period. So yes "more plants is very good" Just use what we know is safe, best bet!!!

Years ago I read that it's not good to give hummingbirds plain sugar water, because it does not contain the micronutrients that natural nectar does. They recommended using the commercial foods if you have to use a feeder. I prefer to use plants they like - and there are a million. It's cheaper, I still get hummers in my yard every day, and I can be sure everything they eat (in my yard) is healthy for them.