4 replies to this topic

[Sharp]

https://goo.gl/photo...G7R8247a9Fig6B9

 

I took her out of hibernation a couple days ago after being in the fridge for about 3.5 months. She didn't move very much and I took this video of her about 15 minutes after I removed her from the fridge. I moved her very gently to a new setup that is much smaller and more suitable for her.

 

It's been a couple days and I've given her a little water through the ytong but she has not been doing too well. I was under the impression that she was dead as she does not make any movements but when I check on her in the mornings, I can see that she has moved a few centimeters at a time. 

 

Maybe she is just taking a long time to wake up? 

 

 

[Bracchymyrmex]

Very gently flip her on her side. I have a queen of the same species (hence my misspelled username) and she is doing fine, been in hibernation the same amount of time. You might want to change her test tube setup too. Void and I changed all our queens' setups about 2/3 of the way through hibernation. 

[Works4TheGood]

Is she still alive?  I'm in PA and my plan was to take my colonies out of hibernation around mid March.  Maybe you're seeing a symptom of it being too early to take her out of hibernation?

 

I'm guessing that the most common cause of queens dying, especially among new ant keepers, is dehydration.  When I first started, I didn't get the cotton in my test tube setup wet enough, and I killed about 10 queens that way.  Make sure she has access to wet cotton when you first set up your test tubes.

[Nathant2131]

Note that queen ants have a low success rate no matter what you do. It could just be the queen, not you.

[Sharp]

She is still alive but not really doing too hot. She moves from one spot to another every so often. Not sure if she is just coming out of hibernation SO slowly or dying... (in which case I should just kill her myself to end her suffering).