April 28 2022
A lot of these kind of nests. There was definitely bigger ones but I didn't want to be in the woods and swarmed by the workers so I stayed in the open, which made it easier to spot de-alates too.
![VzbGUcG.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/VzbGUcG.jpg)
![NReETBw.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/NReETBw.jpg)
![iZFUbkZ.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/iZFUbkZ.jpg)
This photo shows the size differences between the castes
![Q7xxYvw.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/Q7xxYvw.jpg)
A queen digging a chamber
3 queens fighting to get into this chamber
![kNlmHQx.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/kNlmHQx.jpg)
Final count - 23
![PuCNGK2.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/PuCNGK2.jpg)
I was very limited on time because I was leaving the area that very day. I considered myself to be very lucky that they flew on the very day I was there in the area. I was told of this spot so it wasn't by pure luck that I found so many. I could have easily collected thousands of alates if I had more time but I was told to only collect de-alates so I spent about a hour walking around picking up de-alates.
May 07 2022
17 of 23 are still alive. All are singles accept two are a pair. I think all of them have fungus. Maybe 1 doesn't. This one is the biggest fungus. Yes. This is my current set up. I wasn't expecting to find so many queens. I was actually expecting to be given a colony when I was in Texas but they flew instead. So I’m well under prepared with any set ups so I had to do with what I had which was cups and sand. Now I am too worried about moving them to plaster. I will wait until their fungus are bigger.
![8KaQh9n.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/8KaQh9n.jpg)
May 13 2022
Actually. It’s 18 of 23 are still alive. I decided to merge my queens into pairs. Why? Because I didn’t want to buy that many containers. Doubling the odds of the a colony surviving. And because exactly half of the queens didn’t have a fungus garden. So this merge took place exactly two weeks after their initial flight and it’s now been almost 24 hours and no one killed each other
![AXtk4xo.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/AXtk4xo.jpg)
Edited by aznphenom, May 13 2022 - 2:14 PM.