How has your colony grown over the years

[Whippy]

As I was reading the Christmas Gift thread, Dave R. mentioned his colony going from one pair to 8 pairs and that got me thinking about my colony growth over the years. This is one aspect of the Martins behavior that really is cool. So I am curious. How did your colony start and how has it grown over the years?

In the 6 years since I've started I went form zero Martins to 29 pairs. Slow going in the beginning but it blossomed in the last two years. I made changes to my colony every year from adding gourds, changing gourds and so on. I started in 2016 with an S&K 16 gourd fountain rack and 16 Big Bo gourds no tunnels. In 2017 I added Bo 11 + gourds with tunnels and added tunnels to some of the Big Bo gourds and got one pair. In 2018 I added tunnels to all gourds and got 4 pairs. Then I added 6 troyer horizontals, kept some of the Big Bo gourds and kept the S&K Bo11+ and got 4 pairs. In 2020 I went with all Troyer Horizontals but kept some S&K Bo11+ gourds on my inner and outer ring and grew to 15 pairs. Then in 2021 I added Troyer Verticals in place of the Bo11+ on the outer ring, kept the Horizontals and kept 8 S&K Bo11+ gourds. I put the 8 Bo11's on the inside ring of the rack and they were extremely popular. Also in 2021 I added a T-14 and in its first year it had 8 pairs. Very happy about that. So 2021 ended up with 29 breeding pairs in total with a lot of 2nd year martins who did not breed but hung out all year in their selected cavities. I suspect they'll be back.

Obviously looking forward to 2022.

Hopefully, with the experiences being shared in this thread, they will help those just beginning to get ideas on how they can grow their colony bigger and faster with great success.

Coolwhips

[C.C.Martins]

Whippy,
We started just the same and ended 2021 nearly so. I offer mostly tunneled natural gourds, one 6 room tunneled house. This year will add 4 tunneled super gourds and two troyer vertical gourds.
Our satellite site is interesting, put the trio up up in 2018, visitors for 2019, in 2020 PMCA donated a 12 unit gourd rack and that year had 3 pair, 2021,10 pairs. Out there we have 12 gourds and a trio mini castle, some birds insist on the trio, other not so much. This year the trio is all tunnels, 2 S&K, 3 troyer tunnels. Yep, i like tunnels!!

I suspect much of LLs success is location first and foremost to attract martins and then our involvement in their life while with us that keeps them around. By that I also mean expansion, upgrades, maintenance, worry, and everything that goes with it.
Wish you plenty of success this year!!
Tom

[G Saner]

Whippy,

I started my current colony in 2016 with 12 gourds. I didn't see my first martin until March 29th but ended up with 4 pair. The next year, the colony grew to 11 pair. For 2018, I added 12 more gourds that had been at another Assisted Living Center but did not attract martins in two years. 2018 moved to 21 pair and 2019 had 22 pair. The last two years have been 24 pair each.

My site is nearly perfect. 24 gourds are about what I can handle so I have not expanded any further. I have no doubt if I added any number of gourds that they would be 100% occupied. I did buy my cousin on the Texas coast a 12-gourd setup for this season. She lives right on Tres Palacios Bay. They have good numbers of martins in that area, so we are excited about this year.

For new landlords, don't get discouraged if you don't get them right away. Once you attract your first pair, they will attract others and you will grow your colony as we have.

[brent]

Hi everyone,
I put my 1st Trendsetter 8 compartment house up for the spring of 2018. New to being a landlord I marveled when the 1st martin took interest and then in a short time had martins nest building. I didn't have a full house but I did notice later in the season a lot of visitors so I bought another house and put it up. Both houses were full the 2019 season. If I put any more up my neighbors might not be happy because of all of the beautiful noise they make not to mention my sounding the air horn to scare off hawks at what ever time it's necessary. As mentioned the area needs to be inviting to our martin friends. Open...especially. When I lived in Orlando I had a house up for years and nothing happened but it was because of all the oak trees around. Here it's wide open. Good luck to all this season. It's almost here! Brent

[C.C.Martins]

Im with you brent, Im content with the current set up. No more, #1, dont have the space, #2, i can concentrate on what I have and truly enjoy it. I suppose if I really wanted to expand, it will be our satellite colony...no neighbors to worry about
Guess its also like G Saner says, new landlords-dont get discouraged, give it a shot. keep after nest competitors and try like heck for martins.

[flyin-lowe]

My numbers are below in my signature. I started my first colony after 5 years of trying. After it got established we ended up selling the house and moving about 6 miles away. It took another 5 years to get my current colony established. Both colonies grew at similar rates in the beginning years though.

[cabin man]

Hi. I had my first pair in 2017. I lost all for babies. One was due to wing and Trapman. A horrible ending. The male returned in 2018 And went back to the same gourd. He found a sy female and they raised four Young. The male returned in2019, but disappeared a week or two later. I suspect a hawk got him. I had no nesting pairs in 2019. 2020 I had one pair again but a lot of visitors. In 2021, things really got going. I ended up with 12 pair. It all started with a four rack starter bundle with Troyer gourds. Then I added a 12 rack gourd set up. I moved another one over last year, and I’m hoping for a great season in the spring. Happy new year to all and hope we have a blessed purple Martin season in 2022. Rob

[randyM]

I have an ideal martin site located on the shore of a 250-ac lake in rural SD surrounded by large blocks of grasslands with few trees and a dozen other lakes and over 100 smaller wetlands within a 5 mile radius of my site. However there are no active martin colonies within 25 miles of my site. In 2004 when I first moved to my current home I made the mistake of letting tree swallows nest in high densities near my martin housing before martins claimed my site. No swallows nested in the martin housing, but nested in 6 lower single unit houses around the perimeter of my martin housing. Swallows harassed any martin that would visit my site. I had a single martin pair withstand the swallow intimidation in 2006 and 2010 but none returned to nest the following year. In 2015 a lone SY male stayed at my site for the month of June and the swallows eventually tolerated his presence. He returned the next spring as an ASY male, choosing the same cavity (1 of 60 available) he occupied the previous year. He attracted a mate and fledged 2 young. My colony flourished from that point forward...2 pr, 4 pr, 10 pr, 32 pr, 35 pr and 89 pr last year. I'm hopeful in 2022 I'll have more martin pairs than the 102 nesting tree swallow pairs I had last year.

I've been involved in a martin banding study at my colony since 2017. Some of those numbers can be seen in my colony summary below this post. I have nearly 400 martin cavities available, half plastic gourds (mix of super gourds, bo 11's big bo's) and half wooden houses all with round holes (lots of intended sparrow and starling mortality at my site). Martins at my colony tend to choose wooden houses over gourds 85% to 15%.

Happy New Martin Year to everyone!

Randy

[Thomabear]

We started in 2018 with a 12 Rm Lonestar Goliad house and attracted 2 pair. In 2019 we had 6 pair. In 2020 we had 8 pair and last year we had 10 pair that successfully raised young despite the terrible cold weather and unusual Hawk/Owl attacks causing a few birds to perish. Since we were near capacity we just added 24 chirpynest houses on a Troyer gourd rack system. 2022 will be an interesting year to hopefully grow our colony. We are excited to test the new system.

[Dave Reynolds]

... Thanks Whippy .. for the mention of my name.. (Dave R) in your post.. It is something the way some colonies get started.. Mine is kind of funny at times.. I had Martins in 85 thur 88 in the small town of Belpre, Ohio. My next door neighbor at the time tried to get a colony started but with no success. I moved to the town of Little Hocking, Ohio and started work on a new colony. My old neighbor also moved to the same town about two miles away from me. He put houses up and got his first pair that year. I couldn't attached Martins at my new home, so I put houses up at the local Golf Course, and had success there the first year back in 2018. Tried at home a few years but the Tree Swallow had other plans for the new Martins.. Finally success at home came with one pair in 2019 and 2020. then the colony exploded in 2021 to eight pair.. looking for many more pair in 2022, Wishing you good luck in 2022

Dave

[sugarcreek]

My results are below.

We started another colony at my son's house...

Installed 2 - T14 refurbished houses
1st year he had 1 pair and fledged 5
2nd year he had 5 pair and fledged 18

So it's getting better for him.

Always have told myself and him that before it becomes a job taking care of them you better stop adding houses