I have a 20+ queens of pogonomyrmex californicus in 4 different setups. 3 of the 4 setups involve the original test tube connected to a formicarium and the 4th is a sand setup. I noticed one group was very organized as they had moved out all their seeds from their test tube as soon as I connected it to their mini formicarium. All the test tubes came with dirt and seeds and a good amount of dirt has been stuck on the cotton and most of the time, the queens are huddling around the cotton. I noticed the organized colony trying to escape in their formicarium and I took that as a sign that they need something whether food or water. I decided to put honey-water mix into a mini 3D printed feeding bowl and a few minutes later, they threw all their seeds into the honey-water. I read about them doing this to germinate the seeds to open and inadvertently in other test tubes, I had sprouted 1 or 2 seeds this way. I wondered why they wouldn't have done this on the cotton area but since it is covered in dirt, it maybe hard for water to pass through. I am not really sure since they seem to be ok.
My 4th setup which is different from the others is all sand formicarium. For the 2 of the 3 days, I moved them into a dirt setup that had a lot of water at the bottom. They had not dug any holes in 2 days so I tried moving them to a sand setup which they indeed started digging holes. Since the sand setup is not connected to a test tube, they do not have any water-cotton setup anywhere and the new sand formicarium is too small to fit one. I figure they can still get water from the test tube setup but the sand formicarium will need some source of water.