71 replies to this topic

[sirjordanncurtis]

 

Summary (2019.03.12)

Brood Inventory:

• 5-10 eggs
• ~ 8 Larvae
• 3 Pupae
• 5 Worker

Last night before bed I transferred a Pupae from my side project in with the Queen and 4 workers. When I woke up this morning and checked on them one of the Pupae eclosed and now we are up to 5 workers, this latest worker is a bit larger than the previous 4, I have thought about testing compatibility with the side project which currently has 4 workers taking care of the brood they have. Thought it might be interesting to see if they are "compatible" since it was a neighboring colony after all.

 

I was thinking once I get to 5 workers I could capture one of the side project workers and introduce it to the 5+ queen and see if the 5 kill it or accept it. Anyone have any thought's on that? or perhaps the other way around, introduce one of the queens workers into the side project and see if they kill it or not. If the test is successful then I would be up to 9 workers instantly.

 

Camponotus have been known to accept workers if they are smaller colonies, but I wonder how the workers from the neighboring colonies would react, being more attached to their previous colony. Also, they are super finicky my fraggles have even tried to attack their own workers after I washed one in water.

[Xanuri]

Summary (2019.03.14)

Brood Inventory:

• 5-10 eggs
• ~ 15 Larvae
• 2 Pupae
• 6 Workers

So I introduced one of the small workers from the Queen raised batch to the side project of 4 workers + brood! Fortunately no one got hurt, but I found out very quickly they were not compatible, so I decided to end the side project of 4 workers taking care of brood, since my worker count with the Queen now exceeded their count. So I returned the workers to their wild nest and poured the brood they were taking care of in with the Queen.

 

I have to say I am very happy that I was able to save this Queen from perishing and now we are marching forward with 6 workers and a sizable number of Larvae, overall I think it was a successful save at least up to this point anyway!

[Xanuri]

I finally found some time to get you guys a peek at the wild C. fragilis colony in my neighbor's yard. Check out these two short videos

 

Take #1

 

Take #2

 

I also captured one of the Majors, I am pretty sure it isn't the largest one I have seen but I try not to disturb this colony too often and certainly don't want to risk killing any of its members, anyway the Major I captured for study is about 14mm in length. I will return her to the colony after you guys are done with any questions about her!?

[Xanuri]

just wanted to provide everyone a short video of the colony today!

 

[FSTP]

looking good!

[Xanuri]

Summary (2019.03.25)

Brood Inventory:

• 5-10 eggs
• ~ 15 Larvae
• 3 Pupae
• 8 Workers

As of yesterday morning and this morning they eclosed worker #7 and #8. Several other larvae  pupated as well, so it seems we are on a good growth cycle now!

[Xanuri]

Summary (2019.04.07)

Brood Inventory:

• 10-15 eggs
• ~ 10 Larvae
• 8-9 Pupae
• 9 Workers

One of the earlier hatched workers was deformed and died a few days ago, but has since been replaced and we still have a net gain of +1, there are however this coming week a population boost as the 8-9 pupae eclose soon! which as it stands right now we may jump up to 17-18 workers this coming week!

[Rstheant]

You can give it a brood boost and make the colony larger if you choose to do so.

[dspdrew]

I see I'm not the only one giving my colonies serial numbers now. It must be an IT guy thing. You must be planning to keep a lot of species.

[Xanuri]

I see I'm not the only one giving my colonies serial numbers now. It must be an IT guy thing. You must be planning to keep a lot of species.

 

For now the goal is two of each, but I needed a way to distinguish, and yeah probably an IT/OCD thing!!! At some point I would like to keep more than two each but I don't have the facilities at the moment! 

[Xanuri]

You can give it a brood boost and make the colony larger if you choose to do so.

 

I already did brood boosting to ensure the Queen's survival, at this point I will just let nature run its course, unless of course something bad happens!

[Xanuri]

Summary (2019.05.07)

Brood Inventory:

• 10-15 eggs
• ~ 10 Larvae
• 10+ Pupae
• 19 Workers

So, I haven't done an update in a while so I figured I owe the journal a refresh. The worker hatching was slow but we are now up to 19 confirmed workers and will likely add at least 10 more in the coming weeks.

I have posted a few live streams with a new digital microscope I haven't done any real editing so it is raw footage with blurry scenes and all but did a couple full videos of the C. fragilis colony and the new formicaria I made for them, in addition in one of the streams we took a tour of the S. xyloni colony as well!

 

I hope you Enjoy the footage!
https://www.youtube....17rInnXnG_LsqrQ