Too late to start?

[collin1008]

I have always been interested in the old school ant farms (mostly the gel stuff you see in books, never realized they were bad!) after I stumbled across your youtube channel it really made it seem much more accessible than I thought initially and self sustainable (with the exception of feeding water etc) I ended up buying the ebook to get some more insight and have all my general questions answered but I am afraid that I am too late in the season to really get started due to the impending hibernation and potential difficulty to find a Queen to set in a test tube. At this point would it be worthwhile to buy a starting kit with all the equipment now? Or should I just wait till next spring?

[AntMomo]

It's really up to you! I wouldn't say it's too late, your ants would probably still have up to a month or two of activity before you need to hibernate them, but also only having your ants for a month before having to put them away for a while might definitely be upsetting. Spring would definitely be a more exciting time for a beginner ant keeper, but you can always use the winter time to do more research and make sure you have everything for your ants ready/bought/prepared for the spring, regardless of if you have ants waiting for you in the fridge or not. That's just my take on it though

[collin1008]

I've gone through the ebook and have a general understanding of whats what. I think my biggest concern even if I started now would be finding a queen to get things started. I do still need to buy all the equipment which also puts a hamper on things as well. I feel like most nuptial flight periods are over at this point or perhaps I just lack the confidence in being able to find anything, granted the weather is till very warm for this time of year in my neck of the woods.

[AntMomo]

Yeah sad to say, most nuptial flights are over for the year. Depends on where you live though. However, if you want to buy a queen from the GAN program, that should be an option for a while still!

[JacobSyndeo]

Don't give up! After weeks of searching and only finding one queen, I was about to give up. But today, I went out to my usual queen-hunting grounds (my local park) one last time… and managed to catch seven!

So whatever you do, don't give up yet! There are still some species making their flights. Just be on the lookout! I made a habit of visiting the park after work. Usually found nothing, but apparently some days, you get really lucky!

(Also, I've heard that some species like to make their flights the day after a rainstorm, and that lines up with my findings today, as it rained pretty hard last night.)

Good luck! If you don't manage to find any, don't forget to check out the GAN (Global Ant Nursery) project, as others mentioned:
http://www.AntsCanada.com/queen-ants-for-sale/
It's where people with extra queens and nanitics (the first batch of workers) can be connected to people who want to buy a fledgeling colony. I haven't tried it personally, but I've heard very good things about it!