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Post by adamjames20 on Jul 1, 2013 9:38:26 GMT
The Colony are going from strength to strength. More soldiers are appearing and there are many piles of brood in the fungus combs. There appears to be hundreds in these brood piles and the colony are cutting leaves well. The queen has been active among two of the gardens and moving to and fro between them guarded by a mass of workers and soldiers in tow. The fungus count is going up and two new gardens have been constructed, that means the colony now has 7 fungus gardens. One of them was built in a empty sphere and the other was built in the foraging tube. I have added two new spheres and transferred the small garden out of the tube and into one of these where it is now being tended by workers. The colony is now approx. several thousand in size. My set up , 7 fungus gardens now support a growing colony. More will soon be on the way. My latest video Regards Adam
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Post by Wood~Ant on Jul 1, 2013 15:01:44 GMT
The set up is simple in its complexity, but very effective at mimicking the nest of a wild Atta colony. I am really envious and love following this journal Adam. I would enjoy seeing this set up as long as the admission charge is free.
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Post by adamjames20 on Jul 1, 2013 16:24:54 GMT
ha ha hello Wood , cheers mate , yes you and Jen would be more then welcome should you want to see the set up somtime lol
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Post by Jonzii on Jul 1, 2013 17:56:26 GMT
Always look forward to your Atta updates Adam, they are looking great. Quick question of you don't mind.... Do you keep their fungus gardens covered or are they always in the light?
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Post by Jenny on Jul 1, 2013 19:05:15 GMT
Brilliant video as usual, and great to see them increasing. It's going to be the shed for you soon Adam, and leave the home stead to the Attas It's always exciting to wait & watch out for your next video!
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Post by adamjames20 on Jul 1, 2013 21:07:37 GMT
Hello Jonzii , hey Jen thank you so much, Jonzii the colony Is never covered so gets light all the time. I will add though that I only have my patio doors on my bedroom and these lead to a heavily planted tropical green house so although light comes in it is filtered and not direct.
I know Jen soon my ants will take over my room ha ha love having them here , lose myself for hours watching them work.
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Post by darkm666 on Jul 25, 2013 16:32:40 GMT
Anything new and exciting happen?
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Post by adamjames20 on Jul 26, 2013 6:38:14 GMT
Hello Dark , Not really colony is growing nicely, plenty of brood to be seen in all fungus gardens, Queen is active and doing well. The only thing that has really changed is the ants have now constructed a rather nice looking turret type mound on the nest entrance in the foraging arena.
Will be doing a proper update soon.
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Post by darkm666 on Jul 26, 2013 15:38:38 GMT
Cool, just wanted to make sure they didn't die or anything .
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Post by adamjames20 on Sept 2, 2013 0:01:46 GMT
Heres a well needed update on my Attas , they are doing great guys The colony are doing great , the population seems to grow every week and the fungus gardens are full of the helpless larvae. The soldier count is steadily rising too and more Major soldier pupae are appearing. I have been having problems with restriction in the foraging tube going through the wall , the steady stream of ants slowed down as it went through and on closure inspection when removing the tube it was apparent the ants had been busy indeed. A 10 fungus garden was filling the tube and it too was full of brood. I removed it merging it with a smaller garden and have decided for now the restrict the colony to a foraging box to place the leaves in. I have also acquired two pairs of domino tiger beetles which have been placed in the Atta's foraging tank, due to there fondness for ants this is also the reason the Atta can use the foraging box for now. The ants above all are in perfect health and colony life is running smoothly. I have noticed a drop in the temperature of my rooms due to the approaching autumn, this has signalled a need to build a heat box to sit over my acrylic spheres to keep my Atta at the 25-27 c required by the gardens. The gardens will keep the inside of the nest warm but due to the cold air of the room against the spheres the effect would be a build up of heavy condensation which the heat box will avoid. Here's some pics guys and a video. A Major soldier watches over her sisters while they carry out matenance on the fungus garden. 9 fungus gardens now keep the colony going Heres anouther Video Adam
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Post by Joona on Sept 2, 2013 0:50:31 GMT
Glad there doing so well matey, they look great, and your set up looks amazing! Can't believe they hid a garden from you cheeky little things lol.
Do you ever see the queen now, or is she hidden in the fungus?
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Post by adamjames20 on Sept 2, 2013 2:24:11 GMT
They are cheeky lol , yeah queen is visible , she has the two smaller spheres at the end of the set up and moves between the two , the queen guard stops her moving into the bigger spheres.
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Post by Wood~Ant on Sept 2, 2013 6:50:47 GMT
Is it an easy matter to add more spheres for the ants to make more fungus gardens? As always, I love watching the videos on your journal Adam.
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Post by adama20 on Sept 2, 2013 9:26:28 GMT
Thank you wood , I do enjoy making them : ) , yes I just add the spheres on the end and push the set up along a little more to make room : )
When I run out of shelf space that will be the issue ha ha.
Adam
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Post by Joona on Sept 2, 2013 13:43:26 GMT
I personally would make a unit underneath and just get 4 or 5 big 100ltr tubs that no one can see and let the ants go for it, well that's my plan at least lol.
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