Most of my colonies seem happy, but I have a pair of colonies giving me a little concern. Both are C. pennsylvanicus with one nanitic and no brood. Both are in an open ended test tube set in an acrylic box. Water and sugar water are provided constantly, with protein offered every few days. They've recently came out of diapause, and are all eating quite well. The protein might be unnecessary with no real brood, but hey, they seem to like it. I figure it can't hurt anything.
The problem is that, while they seem content, I've yet to see the nanitics getting fluid from the outworld or with enlarged gasters. I've yet to see them leave the tube even once, honestly. I've been placing honey water/protein inside the mouth of the test tube to be found, the act of which seems to noticeably stress out the queens. If they don't start laying eggs soon, the nanitics might end up dying of old age, which has me worried for the future. If they were your ants, what would you do?
I do plan on boosting both queens with 4-8 larvae/pupae, but my most successful queen only has maybe 40 brood and 13 workers. I don't want to risk causing damage there by taking such a significant amount, so this will all hinge on finding brood in the wild. I know where tons of colonies are, but well, we'll see if that's enough.
Follow up question, do most of you that use test tubes block part of the opening with cotton? Not enough to keep queens from going in and out, but to help boost humidity (can squirt water on it, too)? I've done it both ways, and can't tell if it's making any difference.
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