Good evening all, 2 weeks ago I received a brand new Y-Tong nest for my Messor barbarus. I covered the new nest with red sheet, put a heat mat on the side, made it humid for them how they like it and then hooked up a tube from the Y-tong nest to their original nest which is a glass nest specifically for Messor's from Ant Store. In the first week only a handful of ants would go for a walk around the new Y_Tong nest. Then one morning I noticed that about 1/4 of the Messor colony is living in the new nest, complete with some brood and seeds. The rest of the colony including the queen is still in the old nest with the rest of the brood. The ants seem happy enough, I was just wondering if it is normal for them to split the colony in this way? The ants in the new nest are feeding the brood with the seeds etc so everything looks normal and the ants look happy wandering about both nests. There is no fighting between the 2 groups, they share food and everything just like when they were all together.
Anybody else seen behavior like this and is there anything I should be doing to make sure the ants remain happy?