I found these three queens on July 11th, on a lit up wall in Dugopolje, Croatia.
All three kept their wings on, so it's possible they're infertile.
I put two of them in AntKit's acrylic founding chamber size 1, and one in a plastic test tube setup.
All thee have laid eggs within days.
To the date, one of the queens has shed 1 pair of her wings, the smaller wings still on her.
The eggs turned to larvae, and they behaved like good mothers.
Unfortunately, the things took a turn for the worse when I had to leave for vacation.
I connected a tube of water to the founding chambers to keep them hydrated.
One queen scattered her eggs/larvae trying to move them closer to wet cotton and stopped caring for them. The eggs and larvae got fuzzy, molded, so I removed them. She's inactive, clinging to the cotton ball. I removed the founding chamber and will hold her in the test tube she chose over the acrylic nest.
The other queen's pile of larvae was not moved. They must have gotten rather dry and developed some kind of thready structure on them. A week later only one larvae got left. Where the other ones went, I have no idea. The queen probably ate them.
The third queen, the one in the tube has been kept in the dark and I haven't checked up on her much. I will do that in a week's time.
I think it is about time for workers to enclose, but I haven't a singe pupa yet. It is very warm, so it's not that. We'll see...
