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It's been too long! Despite the lack of activity here, this is actually one of my favorite colonies. They are one of the easiest and most forgiving colonies I've had yet, and their growth rate and behavior makes them just a ton of fun. As of right now they fill about a fortress and a half, with more workers hanging out in the outworlds and connecting tube all the time.
Their brood pile is ever-expanding, which is no surprise considering I feed them 5-8 crickets per day.
I also managed to get a pretty nice shot of the queen! Suprisingly, despite being barely larger than the workers, I rarely have trouble spotting her among the mass of workers. At one point she even ended up moving to the type 1 fortress, but only for about a day before moving back.
AnthonyP163, ANTdrew, M_Ants and 1 other like this
Once I got back from vacation I unboxed the Tarheel Ants order that arrived while I was gone, including a Nucleus III intended for this colony. While I was moving them I realized they had way more workers than it seemed, probably nearing 500 at this point. Today the move finished and I took a video.
I'm really not happy with myself for never updating this journal, since this colony is easily one of my favorites. On January 3rd I moved them into a Nucleus III, and they've been thriving in it. I'd estimate in just the few weeks since then they've hit over 1000 workers.
Unfortunately the Nucleus doesn't make for very good full-nest pictures, but just look at this brood pile. They've got a few pupae, huh?
As of now, this colony's Nucleus III is just about at max capacity. They do have a decent ability to cram, and could probably fit another few hundred workers, but with these guys a few hundred is hardly anything. Looking back on the video I took of them just over a month ago, it looks as though they've possibly tripled in size since then. They're well over 1,000 workers, if not closer to >1,500. Unfortunately estimating large numbers of ants isn't super easy.
A few weeks ago I released a video comparing this colony to my Camponotus atriceps, and I'm very proud of it. Probably my favorite video I've ever made.
In the 2ish weeks since then, they've been steadily filling out their nest, and eating like crazy as always. At this point whenever I'm able to see the queen, I see her laying an egg. The craziest part about that is that she's just barely physogastric at all. I don't know how swollen they can get, but I'm hoping it ends up being quite a bit. Just look at all this young brood!
They've also got no shortage of late-stage brood either. Just look at their mountain of pupae!
I've been feeding them more and more every day. Fruit flies are an awesome source of food for them, and they're able to decimate hundreds of them in just a few minutes. Today in both the morning and evening I dumped in almost an entire outworld full of D. hydei fruit flies, and both times within 10 minutes they had all been killed and dragged into the nest. I snapped a quick video showing some of the carnage and the aftermath just for fun.
Within probably a few weeks, I'll be moving them into my Nucleus 360. I had my Camponotus pennsylvanicus colony in it, but in only a month they kept piling trash in the nest chambers and actually got a grain mite infestation because of it. I'll be deep-cleaning the nest after they finish moving out and giving it to this colony instead. They are far cleaner and grow far faster, and just overall will use the space better.
