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Post by crockatt on Feb 18, 2014 13:53:36 GMT
Today I removed the farm from the garage where they have spent the passed 3 months hibernating, I have made a new larger foraging area, so everything is hooked up, and the water and food replenished, I now have the agonising wait to see if there is still life in this small colony.
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Post by deansie on Feb 20, 2014 10:59:26 GMT
Did they do ok over winter?
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Post by crockatt on Feb 20, 2014 12:24:38 GMT
Still waiting to see signs of life , I know they nest just under a stone on top of the nest, but want to avoid moving it to look at the moment, if I haven't seen anything in a week, I will take a look.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 20, 2014 14:11:30 GMT
If the colony is nesting under a stone, try placing the set up where the stone gets plenty of warm sunshine as this will speed up colony life.
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Post by crockatt on Feb 20, 2014 16:32:13 GMT
Will do, just need to find the warm sunshine ;D
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Post by crockatt on Feb 25, 2014 11:20:55 GMT
Having moved the farm to a window that gets the sun, to try and warm things, I still haven't seen any life, so today I lifted the stone they nested under last year, and was disappointed to find nothing , but after a couple of seconds, 2 ants popped out of seperate tunnels , so presumably they have gone deeper into the nest over winter, I didn't see the queen, but as they are in a converted wormworld, I think it will be very unlikely that I will see much more of her (hopefully she is alive), will keep a close eye on things, hopefully they will begin foraging soon, and will hope that later on if they start taking lots of protein, that the queen is indeed alive and has been laying.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 25, 2014 13:51:00 GMT
Wild colonies of this ant wait until their nest is very warm, which usually means the queens may wait until late April or even early May before laying masses of eggs. I have never known Formica species native to Britain to lay eggs before the spring weather warms up fully in early April, as even in captivity mid March is about the earliest you can expect the queens to lay, as it does take a few weeks for them to come fully out of dormancy after their winter hibernation period.
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Post by crockatt on Feb 25, 2014 18:19:57 GMT
Thanks for that wood, will keep that in mind, might stop me getting too frustrated at waiting for movement
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Post by crockatt on Mar 1, 2014 18:08:11 GMT
Well after a lovely sunny first day of spring, I came home to find the first forager of the year in the new foraging tank taking honey water , hopefully it shall continue.
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Post by crockatt on Mar 7, 2014 22:34:19 GMT
When ever we have sun in the late afternoon and it hits the nest, my forager comes out for honey water, it looks healthy with a nice fat gastor, looking forward to the weather warming up, at the moment we are still a bit frosty in the morning and even had a couple of light snow showers this afternoon, but will not be long and hopefully see more activity.
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Post by crockatt on Mar 12, 2014 16:58:36 GMT
What a dope I am, when I took the nest out of hibernation I decided the ants could do with a small stick to help them up and down to the tube entrance in the nest area, that leads to the foraging tank, so I snapped off a small fuchsia twig and put it in place, I was aware there was buds on the twig but reckoned they would die off, over the past week or so these buds have openned and began growing, it wasn't till I turned the nest around that I discovered that my twig has only gone and rooted into the nest, guess it will have to be replaced with a twig with less life in it !!!!!! Foraging continues most days once the nest has heated up, still only the one forager, but all seems well.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Mar 12, 2014 19:39:02 GMT
Look on the bright side, you have a rooted fuchsia cutting which you can plant in your garden and grow a new plant from. I am sure the ants didn't mind it rooting as their nests often have grasses and small bushes growing through the soil in the wild.
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Post by crockatt on Mar 15, 2014 16:16:42 GMT
Things must be warming up in the nest, was watching my forager when I spotted movement on top of the nest, and looks like a new tunnel is under construction, this had been the first time I have seen 2ants outside the nest since about may last year. Have also noticed having changed the foraging pot to a small tank that the honey water and food are not moulding, last year it would only last a day, at the moment I can leave it a week before I change it for fresh, which is a huge bonus.
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Post by crockatt on Mar 20, 2014 17:28:21 GMT
2 foragers were in the tank today and they are taking protein, so fingers crossed this is a good sign of larvae in the nest:-* I even managed to find a spider for them, but they seem to be in 2 minds whether to take it to the nest or cut it up in the tank.
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Post by crockatt on Apr 3, 2014 12:08:58 GMT
The weather here has cooled down again over the past couple of weeks and hence my ants have gone to ground again, hopefully if it ever finally warms up, so will the activity.
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