The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

Hi All! I connected my founding Lasius niger colony to the test tube portal a couple of days back and attached a fresh test tube of water as the tube they currently reside in is almost dry.
She currently has 2 workers and 5 or 6 pupa.

I peeked in on her earlier today and had a slight heart attack when I could see her 2 workers tending the brood but no sign of the queen, further investigation found her wandering around the test tube portal.
Previously I had noted she was the first to investigate food (bits of cricket etc) that I placed in the test tube.

Is this normal? I would have expected the queen to stay put and the workers to venture outside of the "nest".

yeah if there are not many workers and they are not exactly that big and able to fend for themselves i think the queen would venture out to investigate first although normally not all the way out to the test tube portal i think u really have a daredevil queen lmao!