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[font=Arial] [/font]Hello everyone,
I'm relatively new to ant-keeping and this may be a long post so please bear with me....
Last August I got a mated Lasius niger queen with a few eggs and put her into one of the Antstore starter sets (farm + foraging tank, the smallest one I think). She quickly dug herself a nest and disappeared for about 6 weeks.
One morning she was on top of the sand/loam which was odd so I watched her for a bit and soon realised she had a tiny worker with her (is it normal for a queen to leave the nest to hatch her first daughters?) After marching up and down the top of the antfarm for an hour, they both disappeared back into the nest. Up until this time I had been feeding them with fruit and veg cuttings.
A few weeks later I dropped a freshly killed mosquito in the foraging tank and was delighted when a worker stumbled across it, became very active and ran back to the nest and fetched two other workers to cut it up and cart it home! (Proud moment)
Anyway, last October I got married and went away for honeymoon. After getting back, I saw no activity at all and assumed they had gone into hibernation.
It was only a few weeks ago that I found this forum and started reading all the great advice on here and I realised that I'd done a few things wrong - the main one being that I haven't kept the nest moist. In haste I sprayed some water in the top of the farm.
There was still no activity by the end of March I was convinced that they had all died through lack of water, especially as I was seeing plenty of L.Niger active in our garden.
Eventually (and I know now that I shouldn't have done this), I disturbed the nest so that it could be re-used and was surprised to find that the queen, 4 workers and 1 cocoon were still alive.
I transferred them all over to a bigger set-up two weeks ago, and they quickly dug a new nest. Since then I have seen them (the workers) moving eggs on an almost daily basis from one side of the nest to the other (some tunnels are visible in the new set-up).
However, they are not foraging at all and none of the food I put in there is being touched.
So....after rambling on for the last hour I come to the questions....
Have I damaged their development by moving them at a sensitive time (ie whilst they were still probably hibernating?)
Have they still got a decent chance to survive with 4 workers and what seems to be a healthy amount of eggs (unfortunately the cocoon was rejected by the workers after moving them).
All the time they were hibernating they were kept in my office, which is heated during the day but as outside temperatures in the evening - will this mean their hibernation wasn't "proper"?
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to tell the full story so I could get a full answer.
Hey!
Welcome to the forum (maybe i'm not the one who should say that cause i'm relatively new too but anyway).
I've got also a queen with some eggs. Hopefully i'll got a worker until June.
:D
Btw, i'm also new to ant keeping, I'm from Romania and here no one cares about ants. People are too busy :lol:
Ant keeping is a very nice and interesting hobbies. Can't wait to see my first worker!!
P.S. About the mistakes, don't worry i've also done some of those but my queen kept singing "I will survive" :lol:
Codrin
Its unusual for the Queen to leave the nest, i wonder if the nest is not damp enough for them?
Its tempting to disturb the nest if you dont see activity, i know, but you must resist the urge, a young colony will not be very active at all for the first 6-12 months, they dont need much food until the 2nd generation of workers arrives
patience is the key ;)
I expect your colony will be ok, just give them time to recover after the huge giant evil human came and ripped their nest to pieces lol
checkout my caresheet in the begginers section, you might find it useful and should answer ur questions :) hope they wouldnt have hibernated if they where inside, they need temps between 1-10C, 7-8C is best
Well, the fact that they've probably not been hibernated properly was another reason I was worried - especially after reading where some people have reported odd behaviour after their colonies weren't hibernated.
The new set-up is much better than the first (again, after reading all the advice here). I've put a 2cm layer of clay aggregate with a tube down one side so that there is always plenty of moisture in there.
The main worry was that I've slowed their development to the point where they won't forage until more workers are hatched - in the meantime slowly starving/dying of thirst!
I'll keep track and keep you all posted. Just killed a small fly and dropped it in the foraging area in the hope that it will disappear in the next few days.
Codus
Hello Codus and welcome.
I hope they will get back on track (your ants).
It is important you give them a good hibernation. Make sure you do it this year. Good luck.
Let us know who you are,
here .
Thanks !
This morning there's a lot of activity in the actual nest. The queen and a couple of workers are slowly and methodically screening off any places where light can get into their tunnels with sand.
Strange thing is, they don't seem to have been at all bothered about light getting into their nest for the previous two weeks - ah well, I'd much rather take their comfort and security over my being able to see them.
This does lead me to another question though... I know a few of you have set-ups where the nest cannot be seen at all - in this situtation how would you know if that queen had died?
Sounds like after they moved the nest they went back into hibernation and are only now waking up properly. Doing nest maintenance is a good sign. I wouldn't worry too much about them not foraging, just keep the supplied with fresh food/honey and when they want to eat they will find it.
One of my setups is in a basin and I can only see the ants when they come out to forage, and obviously as I don't watch them 24/7 I rarely see them at all. As the colony grows they will have more of an above-ground prescence. I thought they were not foraging too but sometimes you just miss it, and as they eat such small amounts the food can appear untouched unless you catch them in the act.
OK looks like they've stopped screening off their nest - they've left a tiny visible hole into their main chamber and one of the workers has just stuck all the eggs against the glass at this point. I'm guessing this is to let the light onto the eggs to make them develop faster? (As the ants will take the light to be the sun?)
Sorry if this is old news to most of you - I still find myself fascinated by every tiny thing they do. The wife just keeps rolling her eyes and shaking her head at me when I try to tell her anything about my ants :)
I really appreciate the feedback from everyone. I was really annoyed with myself for digging out their first nest - especially as I'd been so patient and not touched them since October last year.
So...thanks everyone. I'll keep you posted on their development
Ok... in answer to your question codus.. if the queen did die.. its more than likely the workers would bring her to the surface. But as long as you feed her well and keep the nest moist and provide fresh drinking water then there is no reason why she would not live for a fair few years.
In deed, if she dies they will bring her out of the nest. About them putting the eggs to the class, it is not for the light that they do it, it is for the heating. They look for the best place for the eggs so they could develop in the best conditions.