7 replies to this topic

[Diesel]

I pulled these girls out of hibernation January 28th. It didn't take long for them to lay and get at it. They are rapidly becoming favorites of mine.

[Diesel]

2-24-18

I can't believe in a little over 4 weeks and I have my 1st workers. Queen #2 will have some in about a week. I took them out a,week apart.

[Hunter]

Why do they look furmiler

[CamponotusLover]

Nice. You will have a great time with these. My first queen I ever caught (2-3 years ago) was a Crematogaster queen, after taking her out of hibernation and she started laying, within her first year, she had nearly 30 workers. 

Edited by CamponotusLover, February 24 2018 - 1:42 PM.

[Diesel]

well if all goes well  and the entire batch survives queen # 1 will have between 15-18 workers and queen #2 will have 12-15 workers. by Monday I think I will have 2-3 more nanitics. and queen #2 brood should be close to hatching.I'm hoping since these girls had and early hibernation and an early exit(3.5 months) that they will get to 40-60 workers before next hibernation. Once the 3 workers were freely moving without hesitation I fed them a drop of honey. even the queen came to replenish her fat stores. I admit I check her daily but the frequent interaction hasn't slowed her down a bit. she's grown quite acceptant of my daily intrusion and never seems to panic or become stressed. she goes about her business tending and moving brood as she sees fit. I am surprised at their growth rate. its awesome. only my Tapinoma sessile grow faster. 

#long live the queens  

[CamponotusLover]

well if all goes well  and the entire batch survives queen # 1 will have between 15-18 workers and queen #2 will have 12-15 workers. by Monday I think I will have 2-3 more nanitics. and queen #2 brood should be close to hatching.I'm hoping since these girls had and early hibernation and an early exit(3.5 months) that they will get to 40-60 workers before next hibernation. Once the 3 workers were freely moving without hesitation I fed them a drop of honey. even the queen came to replenish her fat stores. I admit I check her daily but the frequent interaction hasn't slowed her down a bit. she's grown quite acceptant of my daily intrusion and never seems to panic or become stressed. she goes about her business tending and moving brood as she sees fit. I am surprised at their growth rate. its awesome. only my Tapinoma sessile grow faster. 

#long live the queens

Very nice. And yes, one thing Loops tought me was that Crematogaster queens can be stress trained. Which is pretty cool, when I got my first queen I checked her daily aswell for about 2-3 months after hibernation, then let her alone completely for 1 month and the batch had increased in eggs with many pupae. Not saying you should do this though, for all I know she might've still had that rate of production even if I did check on her. But yeah, it is really nice how stress is not as easily recieved by this species. Or if it is, it doesn't affect growth rate as much.

[Diesel]

3-2-18
These girls continue to be productive.queen #1 has 7 workers with 4 more nanitics due by Sunday. Queen #2 is also doing very well with 5 workers and 6 more due to be nanitics by mid next week.I'm hoping that they will lay another batch of eggs once they all change over. I suspect that once they have eaten a decent 1st meal that it'll help boost their energy to get back at it.
#longlivethequeens

[Hunter]

nice job on the workers i expect my personal queen to have a few on Monday.