trevstonbury: Need advice on the egg chamber (19. Jul 2011 13:43)

Hi There,

I am helping my little brother set up an Ant Farm. I bought him an AntSphere set and we have set up all the pods with different habitats (see pics below) but I wanted some advice to see whether the egg chamber that we have made would is ready and would be suitable to house the queen and her eggs. I know the Antsphere set it not really a serious type of farm but we have done our best to set it up well.

As you can see in the pic (roughly to scale) the chamber is set up in one of the spheres. I have used White sand/loam so the ants are visible through the red tinted plastic. Under the sand/loam there is also a small layer of clay granules. I really want to have a good view of the queen/colony so the questions I have are as follows;

1. Should I keep the chambers sand/loam moist and how moist?
2. Have I put too much sand/loam in if I want to be able to view the queen, does the sphere actually need any at all?
3. Any other recommendations for the chamber or Ant Farm/

Egg Chamber
chamber.jpg

Ant Farm
farm.jpg

Thanks for your help, much appreciated!!!

Trevor

jbc: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (19. Jul 2011 13:56)

Hi Trevor.

Well you could tell us what kind of colony do you want to keep there.

1. If you will tell us your ant species then I could say how moist.
2.If you have aprox. so much sand in there the its ok. and you maybe will see the colony.
3.Remember to clean the arenas where your food will be.

trevstonbury: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (19. Jul 2011 14:03)

Thanks for the quick response,

The species is Lasius niger, thought it would be best for his first colony. Its more important that conditions are suitable then whether we can see her or not but to have both would be nice.

The food is going to bee attached in small feeding chambers that you can connect externaly so it won't be placed inside the main chamber itself.

Kind regards

Trevor

DigiSERBIA: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (19. Jul 2011 17:41)

This looks so awesome !!! cheers m8

Pozdrav

jbc: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (19. Jul 2011 20:03)

Yeah Lasius niger is easy to keep.

Will you order the colony, if yes with how many workers?

The moist level should be 50% but the colony adapts easily to many things.

Then good luck with your brothers colony.

trevstonbury: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (20. Jul 2011 13:46)

I have ordered the queen from Antstore along with 11-25 workers :-), just waiting for them to arrive

So you think the egg chamber will suit its purpose, or could I remove more of the loam/sand so I can guarantee the queen will be visible?

jbc: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (20. Jul 2011 13:53)

Well I wouldnt suggest to remove soil.

You could make a hole with a pen near the place where the chamber ends.

trevstonbury: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (20. Jul 2011 13:58)

So the queen will use that area?

jbc: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (20. Jul 2011 14:10)

Thats the idea.

Ants themselves dicide it, but then it is a bigger chance.

and you could grease a little bit of coocking oil around the upper holes where you can put your hand in so that they cant escape, and you should regrease every week.

And dont make a to deep hole because the bottom of it will be very solid and the ants wont like it or you could make a deep hole and the bottom of it crunch up with pincette or a stick. :)

And if you want that they can dig in your queen chamber- moisturise your sand before putting it in so that it is moist and then it will be easier to maintain the humidity.

As i can see you have 8 chambers that is a bit too big for the colony. I suggest to detach 6 chambers and leav the queen chamber and the arena and in the arena should be 1mm of soil so that they dont sattle in the arena :D

After the colony has stteled in then you can attach the other chambers.

trevstonbury: Re: Need advice on the egg chamber (21. Jul 2011 16:31)

Nice advice!!!

I will try most of the things you just suggested :-)!!!

Thanks!!

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