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[TBsupra33]

Welcome  

I'm writing this journal to help keep track of my colony's progress, and to hopefully help anybody that may come across it. On 5/26/21 i found this Camponotus nova queen while smoking outside the motorcycle dealership i work at. As i was walking along the brick planter by the back fence, a little voice in my head told me to pick up the log nearby, and ill be damned there was a HUGE gaster sticking out of a crack in the log. I was screaming with joy! (this is a bucket list species for this year) and ran back to the car to grab my catch container. She sat on my toolbox all day hanging out, luckily not laying any eggs as that would've made the move into a test tube difficult. she now has an egg pile of 4-5 eggs and counting, but I'm trying not to disturb her too much. thank you for reading, ill update about every two weeks so i have some notable things to report.

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Edited by TBsupra33, May 31 2021 - 1:45 PM.

[TBsupra33]

I found a second one today, within 50 yards of where i found the first  . this one is a tad bigger with alot of spunk!

[TBsupra33]

Update: Both are putting out a healthy number of eggs so far. the first one sat in her dab of honey, is this alright since its a bigger species? should i try moving tubes? the second one has be a tiny bit worried, two or three of her eggs are not in the pile, so i hope its not the dreaded egg scattering starting up  good news is i got in to contact with someone from st cloud who is finding them like no tomoro while cleaning up her backyard, and she's just giving me the queens she finds, so tomoro after work I'm going to pick up roughly 15ish Camponotus queens, most of which i know are nova and pennsylvanicus. hoping there's nearcticus, americanus, or herculeanus in there too, but well see!