The P. Occidentalis queen I ordered thankfully arrived today as I just happened to be off work. I had bought a single queen with just brood however I seen that Tar Heel updated their site saying that all queens now had their first nanitics as of August 10th. The colony consists of 8-12 workers (did not count exactly), 5-7 larvae, 1 pupae and and around 15 eggs. Transferring them into a mini-hearth was not hard. I covered the hearth, took the cotton ball out of the test tube and scooted it right up against the access point by laying it on a bathroom towel. It took only about 40 minutes for the colony to move in. Currently I have the hearth in a VEVOR 25L reptile egg incubator set at 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only will this ensure stable temperature but it can also be used when wintering the colony as it can cool to 36 degrees Fahrenheit (obviously I won't be setting the temperature that low).
Currently they moved all the brood to a consolidated location. The queen is very proactive as she retrieved dandelion seeds to feed the larvae. I do not have pictures since I wanted to just get them moved and settled in. I will not be disturbing them for some time. I will update this Journal when there is something else to report.
