wild caught colonies - not eating

[ragingbananas]

hello, a few days ago i caught some Camponotus sp colonies. I am sure that they are either C. Modoc or C. pennsylvanicus. I am trying to figure out feeding.

One colony only had a few workers - maybe 8 or so, of which I was only able to get 4. Brood is larva stage, and I was able to gather that. another colony had approx 50 workers of which I caught approx 20. Brood is larva as well. the final capture was a queen with brood - only eggs . Each colony was found right next to each other in a section of fallen tree.

These ants are drinking water OK, but they are not really eating. On day 1 I provided honey. In the larger colony a couple of workers ate a small amount of honey. since I have provided apples and meal worms. So far these have been left untouched. I did cut open the meal worms to decrease the amount of work the ants needed to do. I am on day 3 now.

What can i expect here? is it normal for the colonies to not eat much after they are first captured? If not is there a better food i can offer?

Thanks

[Jake9816]

It is normal for the first few days for wild caught colonies to do that because of stress in a new setup. This should change after a few days, the food you're giving them is good but variate it to see if they take to it because they might not want meal worms.