2 replies to this topic

[Queen]

I noticed there are many sellers selling the same species but some with multiple queens. Aside from the price difference, are there any differences in buying the same species with one or multiple queens? Should you always try to pick colonies with multiple queens over a single queen?

 

My initial thought is maybe if one dies then there is a backup or something to keep the colony going or the colony grows at a much quicker rate since there are multiple queens laying eggs.

[OhNoNotAgain]

Just logically speaking, I think yes, you get a backup queen or two. I got a 6 queen Veromessor pergandei colony (as an unexpected freebie lol) and months later half have died and I'm down to 3. I've gotten a couple sets of 3- or 4-queen Pogonomyrmex subnitidus and while one set lost 1 queen, the other set lost 1 AND 1 is a dud and might be eating brood.

 

So the downsides for me have been:

 

One queen may be either a dud or even less than helpful (she could actually eat brood).

One or more queens (even all) may die if someone made a mistake and it turns out the ants are pleo and not really poly. (Haven't seen this myself, but have heard of it.)

Multiple queens, iirc, don't necessarily multiply the quantity of brood. That is, I don't think it's a strict multiplication of 2 queens = double everything, etc.

It's possible workers may take somewhat less care of multiple queens than they would of a single queen. Though I get the impression they'll tend to take care of the most productive, healthiest queen first.

 

The risks appear to go down a lot once a colony is established, with a healthy population of workers.

Other than that, yeah, go for poly queens. I would.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, October 21 2020 - 2:40 PM.

[Queen]

Thank you!