82 replies to this topic

[RedFox]

I love your journal, I hope you continue write about the walnut girls

[Ernteameise]

I love your journal, I hope you continue write about the walnut girls

Oh, I will.

They are just so tiny and hard to take pictures of.

Plus, they will be ready for hibernation in October.

[Ernteameise]

Right.

Since several people in the German Facebook group have started to make their colonies ready for winter, I also decided to clean up the Walnut empire and put them on the balcony, so they get used to colder nights. Climate right now is autumn, wet and windy, and temperatures are 13-17 degrees centigrade during the day and 6-10 degrees centigrade at night.

 

They have now accepted one of the Walnuts as nests and there is still some brood

 

 

It is fascinating- not all of the female alates which tried to fly this summer have left the nest. Some of them have broken off their wings and now seem to act as normal workers, tending to the brood. You can see the larger "queens" together with the smaller workers.

 

I placed the two colonies that need a real hibernation, the Lasius and the Temnothorax, in their hibernation box on the balcony, so they adapt to outside temperatures and get ready for winter.

 

Edited by Ernteameise, September 27 2024 - 5:08 AM.