Hello all,
Last summer I caught 7 different species and 6 of them are doing great, all have lots of brood right now...except for my poor C. castaneus. She was injured when I found her, but despite the injury laid a founding brood of 12 just fine. However since then five of the 12 workers have died, and they don't seem to be eating much of anything I offer them. My other colonies are all booming, but C. castaneus only have a few brood that don't seem to be developing. I am wondering at this point if they are eating the brood? I have a before (3/15/22) and after (5/10/22) picture of the brood pile, but my untrained eye can't tell if growth is just stalled or if they are eating brood.
I have tried to offer them a variety of different food items but they don't seem to be going for anything Campontus should like. They have access to a sugar water tube, I have tried honey, honey water, meal worms, fruit flies, cricket leg...they seem to just nibble or ignore all the food, and growth has stalled since founding brood.
Could the injury have something to do with it? They are in pretty much the same conditions that my thriving colonies are in, AC portal with multiple water tubes and a sugar tube. 15w heating cable.
Any suggestions or advice? Thank you in advance!
-Kenobi
