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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 1, 2012 11:51:09 GMT
(Introduction)The queen from Bobdol has arrived just now, and as you can see I have named her already.  I had earlier saw the postman going down the road, so I found myself lurking next to the door ready to catch her when she went through the letterbox, and succeeded. ;D I had a look at her. She's quite a plump lady, no eggs yet. She was pretty calm as well, which is another good sign. She is going to have the day to settle down, then I'm going to put the heat mat in the box where I keep my ants. That should benefit all of them and not just encourage Queen Gamma to begin egg laying. I have wrapped her back up. The key to keeping a Messor queen in the founding stage seems to be to avoid checking her too often, or they get stressed easily. I'll check her once a week and take extra care when looking into the ant box in future. Here she is.  Feel free to comment.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 1, 2012 16:40:22 GMT
She looks a nice healthy lass. ;D I have taken the photo back to an URL as it was causing a scroll.
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Post by bobdol on Feb 1, 2012 18:17:43 GMT
Its great too see she arrived safely, your spot on about Messors needing quiet and dark too raise brood as they seem so easy to disturb compared to other species and a few of the queens I brought out of hibernation ate some or all of their eggs due to disturbances... Although they all re-laid once left alone again. I find the airing cupboard works wonders being both dark and warm:)!
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 1, 2012 18:57:19 GMT
Its great too see she arrived safely, your spot on about Messors needing quiet and dark too raise brood as they seem so easy to disturb compared to other species and a few of the queens I brought out of hibernation ate some or all of their eggs due to disturbances... Although they all re-laid once left alone again. I find the airing cupboard works wonders being both dark and warm:)! I completely agree, as you cannot beat a nice dark warm airing cupboard to provide the right sort of conditions to make a Messor barb queen lay her eggs. As long as you can be patient, as it may take her until the end of this month or even into March before she lays, but once she starts there should be no stopping her.  |
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 1, 2012 19:27:50 GMT
We do have an airing cupboard or something similar, but it is always full of washing and often disturbed. I hope she does alright, I've never seen such a big gaster on a Messor before.  |
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 2, 2012 8:30:16 GMT
We do have an airing cupboard or something similar, but it is always full of washing and often disturbed. Ask your mum if she can allow you a small corner to put your new queen, as a little disturbance does no harm if the queen isn't moved at all. I hope she does alright, I've never seen such a big gaster on a Messor before. This would indicate 2 possibilities. That she was well fed before leaving her parent nest to go off into the big wide world on her mating flight, and secondly that she is swollen with eggs. Most likely to be the latter I imagine  |
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 4, 2012 10:36:43 GMT
(Log 1)I have moved her to this section of my film cabinet. I originally used this bit for keeping my ants in before I put most of them into a box. My reasoning for moving her on her own is because my heat mat causes condensation to form in the setups of the other ants, which is a potential hazard to them. Queen Gamma's test tube is unaffected by condensation, and the heat mat is warm enough. Not quite as good as a airing cupboard, but I hardly use this cabinet so it should be warm and undisturbed.  If all goes well, egg laying will begin next week or thereabouts. 
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 16, 2012 7:33:19 GMT
(Log 2)Colony founding has begun! She has laid a small ball of about six eggs, and it looks like she can lay a lot more. I'm going to be checking her once each Thursday to keep her in a good mood. I couldn't get a photo since she hid the eggs next to the cotton shortly after I looked.
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Post by IceWhyte on Feb 16, 2012 8:07:34 GMT
Great news. I think we both have the same tactics in place. |
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Post by Zarbi on Feb 16, 2012 8:09:48 GMT
That's great news about her laying eggs As Wood says, February seems to be the time for egg laying in this species, and he is never wrong when it comes down to his own experience with ants he has kept.  |
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Post by Wood~Ant on Feb 16, 2012 8:25:15 GMT
An average first clutch is between 12 to 30 eggs, depending on food, the queen's body reserves, and temperature and fairly low humidity conditions. |
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 23, 2012 7:22:58 GMT
(Log 3)There does not appear to be any change in the number of eggs for this week, unless she's hiding them well. I imagine that there could be more next week. She is still quite calm.
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Post by TenebrousNova on Feb 29, 2012 11:53:43 GMT
(Log 4)
There seems to be some more eggs, but I might be confusing this mass with a bit of damp cotton (Which mold seems to be growing on).
She was not happy with my inspection.
I have put three grass seeds in there. Hopefully she won't, but I have a feeling that she'll put them on the cotton, where they'll germinate.
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Post by IceWhyte on Feb 29, 2012 14:24:03 GMT
I thought that too but my queen moved them to the dry end of the test tube. Hopefully yours will too. |
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Post by TenebrousNova on Mar 7, 2012 10:23:11 GMT
(Log 5)There are no longer any eggs.  The water won't last for very long, so I might have to move her next week if she doesn't lay any more eggs. Not sure where I'm going wrong.
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