ANTSTORE World of Ants

[Sanguineaddiction]

Hi all, i'm very new to ant keeping.

Got my first Lasius niger queen and a half dozen workers through the post a couple of days ago. i have a decent set up; Antstore Starter Set L with very moist (maybe slightly too moist at the moment) sand/loam mix for the farm section.
i covered the glas tanks in towels to make them really dark and left the test tube sticking out the side in the light, hoping they'd move into the farm. initially a couple of workers ran into the farm section but just wandered round for a bit and returned to the test tube. now the queen appears to have laid a few eggs in the test tube, so i am assuming she intends to stay there. the workers arent exploring they are just sitting round next to the queen, and very little is happening. so here are my two questions:
1) shall i put food/drinking water in the farm/basin/test tube?

and

2) will it be possible to get them to move in properly and dig a nest in the sand/loam?

i'm worried it's all going wrong, so any advice is welcome!

thanks

Sanguineaddiction

[mati]

Hi there.

I take it from your name, you're keeping sanguinea as well?! Mine where in the test tube (within the arena) and moved during the first night. Unfortunately, they settled in between two pieces of wood and started digging right in the centre of the arena so for the moment I can only observe their movement outside the nest.... I've prepared the farm-section with a gypsum-nest but for now the ants are just exploring it.
So I guess patience is needed... with no place to move to and to start digging in the arena your ants should eventually settle in the farm. How did you arrange/design your arena?

Provide food and water for them (in the arena), especially if there are eggs. They need protein to develop further once they have hatched. At first, I gave my ants pure honey but they seem to prefer honey mixed with a little water. As far as I can observe, this does suffice as water supply, they don't seem to be taking additional water.

Good luck and enjoy your observations.
mati

[Sanguineaddiction]

thanks mati,

no actually "sanguine addiction" is a line from a great song "Wolf Moon" by Type O Negative and i always use it as my screen name on the net. i didnt actually know there was a species called sanguinea!! lol

i'll try feeding them tonight. both protein and honey water. i just hope they find the food, as the arena is a fair distance from the test tube and they dont seem to be exploring at all.

how long do the eggs take to hatch?

another worry is that they'll not move out of the test tube now she's laying eggs. also, they dont seem to want to explore. maybe this is something they'll do when there are more workers?

[AntNoob]

Lasius niger are stubborn ants, and they will eventually move when there is no more room in the test tube, or if you make it unpleasant to live there, but don't worry it is all normal when you have only a dozen.

and they wont explore so much if they don't need anything to explore for.

[Sanguineaddiction]

well she's laying eggs and i've put the test tube inside the farm section (the tall thin one, not the arena/basin), hoping the queen would come out and they'd make a nest in the sand, but instead she's stayed in the test tube and now the workers are actually taking bits of sand from outside the test tube and building something inside the test tube with it!!!

maybe the are partitioning the test tube into areas for the queen, food storage, larvae etc? it's very hard to see because the test tube has misted slightly.

[mati]

How are the ants doing?
With Lasius niger I do not have any experience but according to what I've read it is normal behaviour for the colony to build in the test tube in the beginning. Eventually they should move... My own colony is still dug in and only exploring the gypsum-nest so far.

Buisy with the same question, I tried to find figueres on how long the development takes, and according to what I've learned this very much depends on parameters such as temperature, food supply (mainly proteins, carbohydrates seem to be needed by hatched ants), and in some species humidity. Maybe try adjusting these parameters.
From my own observation: The ants hardly move prey from one basin to the other, for which reason I'm not quite sure yet. That is why I offer food in both basins. Did you observe similar behaviour?