Antdemocracy's Lasius niger colony

[antdemocracy]

So some of you guys may know I currently have 3 Niger colonies, but this journal is just going to be on one of them. This is because one of my other colonies queens is in a bad state and unlikely to make it, and the activity in my other colony has reduced massively. I have no idea if that queen is still alive as she's buried deep in the nest.

Anyways, back to the topic. This was the first proper colony I purchased In December. It was originally intended as a gift for my niece. The colony arrived with the queen, around 8 workers and no brood. I purchased an antworld nest for them. I literally had done no research at all into ant keeping at the time, and so I pretty much poured the queen and workers straight into the ant world (complete newbie error I know). Understandably, it took the queen and workers a good 6 weeks to settle down and the workers built a few tunnels. After around 2 months the queen had her own chamber and that is where she currently resides. After 5 months of relative inactivity the queen laid a small batch of eggs. This has since been brood boosted by a wild colony from my garden, and with my currently deceased niger colony's brood. So I would say in total there are around 50-70 eggs, larvae and cocoons. There are still only the original 8 or so workers, so I hope the massive boost of brood on top of the queens own 10 or so won't overwhelm them. The colony has been feeding well and taking in protein for the brood in the form of fruit flies.
Thank you for following

[antdemocracy]

17/6
From what I can see, some new workers have arrived. There are still several cocoons and larvae at various stages of development. All the workers are all just chilling in the queens chamber though. I can't see any evidence of attempted nest expansion and all in all, they don't appear to be particularly active really.
They are still taking dead flies I place in their mini out-world. I rarely catch them in the act though, so I can only assume that they are feeding from the sugars and water left there as well.

[antdemocracy]

01/08/2015
This colony seems to be growing very slowely compared to what I have read from other journals on this forum. There is almost an inch long 'mound' on the surface, so digging and expansion must be taking place, although aside from the queens chamber and a smaller chamber above, I cannot see where. I very rarely, if ever see any workers in their make-shift mini outworld, but I know they visit as whenever I place dead insects they are gone within the hour. All workers seem to stay in the queens chamber with the queen, and there are more cocoons so the queen is obviously laying eggs. Was a bit concerned about the lack of activity, but there has been progress, albeit rather slow.