2 replies to this topic

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

So I have been keeping a polygynous Formica. sp colony, as you can see from my journal here:

 https://www.formicul...ica-subsericea/ (don’t know how to make the link shorter)

I am aware that they don’t hibernate with brood, and recently I have brood boosted them and little did I know it there was eggs! I know that is did not get them from the colony that I used to boost them because I saw one of my queen lay with my own eyes. At first I thought they were they were trophic eggs, but the egg pile was growing slowly, now it has been 5 days, and they still don’t eat them, and the callows are usually seen in charge of them, if not, it’s the queen’s job. So why is this happening, usually they stop laying somewhere in August in my experience and they never hibernate with brood.
Is it because their internal clock is messed up?

[timtellstrom]

Intresting, I am currently also wondering about my Formica cinerea colony here in northern Sweden why the queen has laid like 5 eggs yesterday. They have been in hibernation for like 2 months and the queen is from central europe but it's odd cause usually queens resume egg laying around late march.

I took them out of hibernation now because the queen has started laying, if they develop into larvae i will let them grow until late september, if not i will resume hibernation. Odd because if they hibernate like formica should without brood this is really weird.

 

How is your formica colony now? are they asleep, without brood?

 

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

Intresting, I am currently also wondering about my Formica cinerea colony here in northern Sweden why the queen has laid like 5 eggs yesterday. They have been in hibernation for like 2 months and the queen is from central europe but it's odd cause usually queens resume egg laying around late march.

I took them out of hibernation now because the queen has started laying, if they develop into larvae i will let them grow until late september, if not i will resume hibernation. Odd because if they hibernate like formica should without brood this is really weird.

 

How is your formica colony now? are they asleep, without brood?

They are doing really good but there is that one lonely larva that was smaller than others because it was laid the latest, a week difference, I put them to hibernation anyways because of how they would only accept sugars and were very sluggish