ANTSTORE World of Ants

[highered]

When a queen starts out she produces hardly any eggs but when you look at well established nests they have loads of eggs. When the first workers hatch out and feed the queen more protein why doesn't she straight away produce lots of eggs? Why does it seem to take until the colony is bigger and what triggers more egg laying? Thanks.

[Kale^^]

The ants cannot be sure if they get enough food for all the brood, also the queen cannot start laying loads of eggs right after the start, she needs to get used to it.

[highered]

Ok thanks, I understand now

[miszt]

Highered, if you ever get a chance, check out the section in The Ants by Wilson and Hölldobler that talks about colony creation, some interesting insites actually the whole book is interesting lol

[JimmyVe]

They only produce as many eggs as the colony can handle.

[delete-14751]

I've found with L.niger if you give them a few grains of sugar, they spend the day trying to eat it all then go and start laying eggs. Make sure they have water tho because sugar dehydrates them.

I tested this out no four queens a found on the same day and i gave them sugar on different days and they all had laid eggs within 24h of having sugar.

[kashmir79]

Protein Protein = queen= egg laying machine

thats how you get your queen to lay plenty of eggs.
feed the colony plenty of food, and they will grow