"Martin Hog,” a term describing martin colonies that attract more year old females than they produced the year before. Martin hogs make it very difficult for new local colonies to be started as young females prefer established colonies.
I have always provided much more housing than I needed each season, as I thought this would enable me to grow my colony as quickly as possible. In years past I was under the impression the reason for my success of growing my colony very quickly was due to providing more housing then I needed, thus having less competition for housing, so less fighting between males. Although this may be a contributing factor, it may not be the main reason for my colony's growth success.
It turns out the "martin hog theory", if true, may provide additonal reasons for my colony's growth. If year old females prefer established colonies, then my colony definately fits that bill. And I could not think of a better reason for a colony to grow remarkably fast then having a large influx of new females each year. A colony abundant with females will cause less competition by males looking for females as there are more females to go around. The colony would have less single subadult males causing problems including infanticide.
Unlike humans, female martins live shorter lives than males and this causes problems when the ratio of males to females hatched are relatively equal. So female martins of breeding age die earlier than males causing more males than females looking for mates! But "martin hog" sites would have less of this an issue if they are attracting more females in ratio than other nearby sites.
Last year I had 116 nesting pairs, and this year I am providing 224 gourds. Yes, I plan on continuing my colony's growth using the "martin hog" theory and keep providing much more housing than I need.
No comments:
Post a Comment