Post by taz on Oct 4, 2014 22:06:50 GMT
Hi all, OK so this is my ant colony journal. I have had my Messor Barbarus Delpha Colony for about a year now. (Received my colony last August with a lone queen) From a founding queen the colony had fairly and surely grown to about 80-100 workers now.
I kept my new Queen Delphi over last winter (2013) at about 15-20 degrees cent from a heat lamp some distance away. Being a Messor queen she had to be kept alone in the dark and quiet undisturbed.
After the long winter, I woke my queen from hibernation in mid Feb. (Hibernation from mid Nov-Feb) In early spring I had around 20 workers and starting producing Media caste workers. Now keeping them at between 20-25 centigrade, sometimes reaching towards 30 on a hot week! From this time, the queen had started becoming A LOT more active. Lots of larvae and pupae where being produced and the gathering of seeds where being stored. Also my first few major/super major workers appearing. yay!
I have fed my Delpha colony a few caterpillar, honey water and some smoothie juice and fruit. Which they only picked at to be honest. Nowadays they of course prefer just their varied finch seeds.
This formicarium is a glass Ytong 3 chamber+water trough from Antstore.
Here are a few pictures of my colony 6 months in. Queen Delphi at her most active and brood production building up.
Now they reside in a custom built Ytong foundress chamber as from May time. This fabulous formicarium is from the popular TarHeel Ants store. I highly recommend this site and you can have almost any style you want! (a bit expensive for European customers but well worth it!)
In time, when my Delpha colony grows larger, likely to be next year now I will connect to the larger pinnacle formicarium shown below. This will hopefully give them the space they will need and will migrate across.
So below is the new founding chamber (and Pinnacle) they are now housed in. Red acetate to cover their main chamber section to appear as if they are in the dark. Sometimes I peel away this acetate to view them. They do seem to love their new home!
New updates on Colony Delpha to come soon! Any questions just ask below.
Taz x
I kept my new Queen Delphi over last winter (2013) at about 15-20 degrees cent from a heat lamp some distance away. Being a Messor queen she had to be kept alone in the dark and quiet undisturbed.
After the long winter, I woke my queen from hibernation in mid Feb. (Hibernation from mid Nov-Feb) In early spring I had around 20 workers and starting producing Media caste workers. Now keeping them at between 20-25 centigrade, sometimes reaching towards 30 on a hot week! From this time, the queen had started becoming A LOT more active. Lots of larvae and pupae where being produced and the gathering of seeds where being stored. Also my first few major/super major workers appearing. yay!
I have fed my Delpha colony a few caterpillar, honey water and some smoothie juice and fruit. Which they only picked at to be honest. Nowadays they of course prefer just their varied finch seeds.
This formicarium is a glass Ytong 3 chamber+water trough from Antstore.
Here are a few pictures of my colony 6 months in. Queen Delphi at her most active and brood production building up.
Now they reside in a custom built Ytong foundress chamber as from May time. This fabulous formicarium is from the popular TarHeel Ants store. I highly recommend this site and you can have almost any style you want! (a bit expensive for European customers but well worth it!)
In time, when my Delpha colony grows larger, likely to be next year now I will connect to the larger pinnacle formicarium shown below. This will hopefully give them the space they will need and will migrate across.
So below is the new founding chamber (and Pinnacle) they are now housed in. Red acetate to cover their main chamber section to appear as if they are in the dark. Sometimes I peel away this acetate to view them. They do seem to love their new home!
New updates on Colony Delpha to come soon! Any questions just ask below.
Taz x
