So I went out after an afternoon rain the other day to see if there was any activity and was fortunate enough to find a few Trachymyrmex septentrionalis queens running around after a pretty massive nuptial flight. It was awesome to watch as there were at least ten colonies involved in the same little area. I waited around for about thirty minutes as I saw alates at the nest entrances poking their heads in and out and then all at once workers started spilling out followed shortly by all the alates which climbed the grasses and started taking off. It was the first active nuptial flight that I had witnessed other than fire ants. It lasted about 30 minutes and then just as quickly as it had started, it was over and all the ants retreated back into their nests.
The queens I was able to find were without wings walking around and one had started digging a founding chamber so I am pretty sure they are mated. I have them in acrylic containers with hydrostone floors that can be hydrated by a tube that connects to the outside. It has been about 5 days but I don't see any fungal pellets being deposited yet. Do I need to start giving them substrate to start their fungus gardens yet or should I wait until they regurgitate their fungus? Also, is it fine to just put bits of rose petals and other things right on the same hydrostone floor they are on as long as I remove and replace it every few days, or should I go ahead and connect small out world foraging areas to their chambers to give them substrate for their gardens? I've read and looked at a lot of the Trachymyrmex and Acromyrmex journals here and have found them to be very helpful, but I wasn't sure about the timing of when to add the ability to forage in the very early founding stages. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Sorry I can't help but I'll be watching this thread for sure! 
