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sianhilton: Messor barbarus (21. Mär 2008 10:06)

Received my Messor b arbarus queen the other day.
There was 1-2 brood which she carried in her mouth when I observed?

She is residing in original test tube wrapped up in kitchen towel in airing cupboard at 25 degrees C.

I have seen various posts about just giving honey and leaving her is warm dark place.

At what point I put her into a bigger nest is the trigger point the number of workers or time of year, somehow I think it is the latter?

I am thinking about putting a small dead fly in the tube?

SteveUK28: (21. Mär 2008 11:09)

its the number of workers sian, id advise not moving untill you have at least 20 workers as they are so sensative. I doubt very much the queen will touch the honey either as she needs protien more than anything. Perhaps try her with a tiny bit of protein jelly. If i was you id also keep an eye on the water in her test tube as the air in ya airing cupboard is going to be very dry. Hope this helps :D

sianhilton: (21. Mär 2008 11:53)

Steve

I know it can vary, but roughly how long can that take i.e to get 20 workers?
Ant Jelly where else can I get this from besides ant store?

Thanks

mzfckr: (21. Mär 2008 13:30)

i dont know about workers but some petshops have some jelly

ducatiman: (21. Mär 2008 13:51)

i have a M essor barbarus colony,i got them when there was a queen and 4 workers just before hibernation.I woke them up in january and i keep them at 27c ,now after 2.5 months there are approx 20 workers loads of eggs,i feed them a couple of flys every 3 days,i i can help anymore let me know

JimmyVe: (21. Mär 2008 17:19)

This species don't eat honey water (rare cases they accept it but not plenty) give the young queens some small bugs after she has a few workers (+-10) you can also add some seeds. If the colony grows they are going to accept more seeds than insects but they still need insects to.

sianhilton: (21. Mär 2008 17:33)

Hi Jimmy

So, no food given until she has workers?
How does that work?

Not doubting what you are saying, just seems unusual?

Regards

JimmyVe: (22. Mär 2008 09:29)

Hello Sianhilton,

No i said, give the young queen some small bugs. :)
The seeds you only need to give if there are workers, queens themselves don't accept the seeds.
And about the sugar water (ore honey), Messor species don't eat that, you can always try (because in some cases they do, but this are rare) and see what they do with it.

Mika: (22. Mär 2008 09:30)

That is not unusual, that is exactly what happens in nature: a queen starts a colony out of her own fat and muscle tissue: she can only do this once.

My advice would be, especially when you have several queens fresh from the mating flight, to give them no additional food: you will weed out the weakest queens: they will die, but you saved yourself a lot of time caring for an inferior colony. This is how nature works, you cannot improve nature.

If you only have one queen, and you are unsure about her origin, you can give her food, because there is nothing to weed out. In the beginning only small insects, afterwards you can give bigger insects, and grains.