17/02: my ants were delivered. a small colony, about 20 workers and 2 queens. they are in a test-tube witch i connect to a small plastic formicarium. i keep them in a room where it is 8°c.
11/03: they waked up from there hibernation, i give them made's and worms. moved them to an other room where it is 22°c and the humidity is 50%.
14/03: the first eggs were a fact, only from 1 of my queens.
16/03: both of my queens are laying eggs. the workers clean the test-tube (there still in it) and bring food to my queens.
27/03: i found 1 dead worker, removed it from the tube. the temperature is now 25°c.
30/03: no larva yet ?? the eggs are more then 2 weeks. more eggs come everyday. i moved my ants to my big formicarium (you can find pictures of it on this site. ant display)
1/04: the ants moved out of my test-tube in to the sand, they are somewhere in the middle of the formicarium so i can't see the nest. they moved at night so i didn't see it. everything is cone, the eggs, the 2 queens and the workers. didn't see them anymore during the day. no dead ants anymore.
5/04: i spotted 2 workers at night at the feeding place. no workers are above ground during the day. i don't see the nest so i don't now if there are larva. i hope so... this is normal (so i read) if the colony is this small they stay most of the time underground till the colony is bigger.
12/04: nothing to see, i think they still feed the queen because the made's and dryad fly's i put at the feeding place are being eaten.
20/04: i spotted 1 worker during the day seeking for food (found it at the feeding place
) still no new ants (i think, there most of the day underground). i hope the colony gets bigger soon so they come more above ground. can't wait to see some soldiers
27/04: everything seems to bee o.k. it's been a week since i see an ant but there still eating.
3/05: There still eating but no changes from last week... i hope everything is ok.
28/05: At last, there are two of my workers eating. Its bin a wale since I've seen one. So it's seems like there doing ok.
29/05: After a hard day work i come home and look at my formicarium, and there is one worker eating, it's nice to see them back, i hope the colonie is getting bigger and stronger. (I'm thinking of changing my Sand formicarium to a Y-tong nest formicarium, don't now for sure how to do that, but I work something out
)
29/08: two mends after my last update. They are still in my sand formicarium. The colony is bigger and stronger than i expected. I guess about 100 workers. Some of them are soldiers. Very nice to look at them when i just fed them. I'm working on the Y-tong nest if it's finished i try to move them to it.
29/09:They are doing just fine, today i fed them and i counted 5 big majors and 3 little majors, also about 40 workers i think. They are still in the sand farm, i guess I'm going to leave them in there till after the winter. they are digging tunnels in front of the farm, why i don't now, because al the rooms are at the back of the farm, hopefully they build some rooms in the front also.
13/10: They where very busy today, for hibernation time is coming, i turned off the heating lamp. So they where moving everything around, some of them where carrying larva. Other where just very busy 'remaking' the nest. There are many tunnels now in front, that is good, now i can see them underground as well.
1/11: They are not in hibernation yet, at the back of the basin i can see that they put the larva underneath a piece of wood almost in the open air, i think that is because it is warmer there then under the sand. I still feed them but not as much as in summer time. I hope everything is going to be fine (for hibernation i mean) and that the colony is doing fine when hibernation ends.
7/11: They are almost in hibernation i think, there is not much off activity during the day (at night i can't see because i sleep
) a few workers walk around but most of them stay in the nest (underneath the sand).
(update)23/12: They are in hibernation now for a few weeks already and they are going to stay in it till end of February so there is not lot to comment right now.
Greetings Jimmy
Sorry for my bad English
Skippy
im looking for a colony of these! so if anyone out there has one, Ill be VERY interested!
