Post by jennifer on Sept 17, 2011 22:52:56 GMT
Another Update and I have been a busy Bee.. or worker ant...
I expected the Queen to have perhaps 4 workers and start slowing down as it is Autumn but it seems she is pumping them out. From what I can see, 4 dark workers and one pale yellow one, and a few on the way.
As my first queen seems to prefer to eat her eggs, even though I gave her honey till she looked like a helium balloon, I ordered a small colony from the Ant store.. 10-15 workers.
They arrived today and are doing well. They settled in after I opened the top, the queen and three workers were sitting on the lid so she panicked and ran under a small wooden log.
Eventually three workers pulled her back inside, quite funny seeing them actually push and drag her back to the nest.
For the entrance to the test tube I punched a small hole through some hard wool and they began using it, seeming to calm down when the entrance was 1/10Th the size it was. Even pulling sand into the entrance to make it their size after an hour or so.
Usualy there are 3-4 foraging at any one time but soon as I started filming 3 decided to have a rest..
Later that evening one started pulling some protein back to the nest all by herself as you can see here.
I also made an out world as a weekend project. For the queen who now has 5 workers, the hole in the side was the tricky part, my Fiance said he should do it as its a power tool and I might hurt myself.
Its a screw driver with a cutting tool.. not a cement mixer.
I am sure you can imagine what I said back and where the Tool in the room was.. might have included the word patronizing*&&^ anyways, moving on after the hole that he drilled, which was *supervised* by me cough.. , I increased it slightly with a hot nail to make it the perfect fit, his drill was only 13mm and I needed 16.. So I had a nice quip about how his tool was too small to do the job.
Here are some pictures, I'll try to get some of the colony tomorrow. I used Plaster of Paris for the base, will clean it up tomorrow, thin layer of soil and some plants and rocks.
Made a small tiny foraging pot from the small tub I received from the queen ant shop.
I expected the Queen to have perhaps 4 workers and start slowing down as it is Autumn but it seems she is pumping them out. From what I can see, 4 dark workers and one pale yellow one, and a few on the way.
As my first queen seems to prefer to eat her eggs, even though I gave her honey till she looked like a helium balloon, I ordered a small colony from the Ant store.. 10-15 workers.
They arrived today and are doing well. They settled in after I opened the top, the queen and three workers were sitting on the lid so she panicked and ran under a small wooden log.
Eventually three workers pulled her back inside, quite funny seeing them actually push and drag her back to the nest.
For the entrance to the test tube I punched a small hole through some hard wool and they began using it, seeming to calm down when the entrance was 1/10Th the size it was. Even pulling sand into the entrance to make it their size after an hour or so.
Usualy there are 3-4 foraging at any one time but soon as I started filming 3 decided to have a rest..
Later that evening one started pulling some protein back to the nest all by herself as you can see here.
I also made an out world as a weekend project. For the queen who now has 5 workers, the hole in the side was the tricky part, my Fiance said he should do it as its a power tool and I might hurt myself.
Its a screw driver with a cutting tool.. not a cement mixer.
I am sure you can imagine what I said back and where the Tool in the room was.. might have included the word patronizing*&&^ anyways, moving on after the hole that he drilled, which was *supervised* by me cough.. , I increased it slightly with a hot nail to make it the perfect fit, his drill was only 13mm and I needed 16.. So I had a nice quip about how his tool was too small to do the job.
Here are some pictures, I'll try to get some of the colony tomorrow. I used Plaster of Paris for the base, will clean it up tomorrow, thin layer of soil and some plants and rocks.
Made a small tiny foraging pot from the small tub I received from the queen ant shop.
