One of the Camponotus Queens I collected this spring died in a test tube with her first 4 workers and several eggs.
The workers look healthy. At least one or two of them ate a little honey a couple weeks ago.
I have more queens in test tubes that were collected about the same time; some have 2 to 3 workers and some have eggs only.
My questions is:
Would any of these other queens of the same species be good candidates to adopt the orphaned workers and eggs?
You can try, but it is not always 100% successful. But it does sometimes work.
Take both colonies of the same species (one with the queen and one with just the workers) and put them in the fridge (not freezer!). Don't put them together yet. Leave them in for about 20 minutes. Then take the one with just the workers and brood and dump them into the other test tube with the queen. Leave in fridge for another 20 minutes.
Take them out, let them slowly wake up and see what happens. I'd recommend using a fertile queen with as few workers as possible.