Kalistes Lasius niger journal

[kalistes]

Since I collected eight freshly mated queens yesterday (during a shopping trip!), I figured it would be good to start a journal on their progress. This is likely to be slow to get started (until they actually start egg production and aquiring new workers), so bear with me ;D

I've named each queen with a letter and colour (for my own benefit as much as anything, and I know other members have found this makes it easier to make notes on them). They are as follows:

Queen Alpha
Queen Beta
Queen Gamma
Queen Delta
Queen Epsilon
Queen Zeta
Queen Eta
Queen Omega (who I only just caught at the last second!)

All have been tranferred into a piece of clear plastic tubing (I didn't have any test tubes to hand) with a wad of cotton wool at each end (one wad kept damp, the other dry). All tubes have then been put into a sturdy wooden box (with airholes and a lid to cut out the light) and put in a quiet area of the room. I will check the cotton wool every couple of days to keep it damp and check on their condition/progress, but otherwise leave them fairly undisturbed.

[kalistes]

Amazingly, after only twenty four hours Six of the eight queens now have eggs! ;D

Epsilon has 1 egg

Alpha, Gamma, and Delta have 3 eggs each.

Omega has 4 eggs

and Beta has 5 eggs! incredible!

Only Zeta & Eta are yet to lay, and this is very early days ;D

[kalistes]

Well, all the queens now have a nice pile of eggs. Checked them this morning to make sure that the cotton wool was still moist, before returning them to peace and quiet.

I will update this jounal as soon as anything unusual happens, or when I have my first workers ;D

[kalistes]

Oddly enough, Eta (who was one of the last queens to start laying) now has the largest pile of eggs and pupae. I counted 18 or so eggs and 12 pupae from this queen! Omega on the other hand now seems to have none at all (unless they are hidden in the cotton wool...). Beta is still doing well and probably wins second prize for the largest brood. The other queens are all doing ok, each (apart from Omega) with a small pile of eggs.