I am back for the summer in Maine

[Water4]

I joined last summer. Captured a number of Camponotus queens. Zero survived the winter.
I do have one queen, still unidentified. She had 5 nanatics that appeared to do well in a test tube set for a couple months. One by one they died off leaving the queen alone again. She eats cheese and chicken. I am hoping she will lay more eggs.

I am thinking I may give it a go again this summer as I have located several small Aphaenogaster colonies living in dead birch limbs lying on the forest floor.

I would welcome any advise on capturing an Aphaenogaster colony or the queen, and keeping them in an OmniNest Large.

[Batspiderfish]

You should learn how to raise just a queen successfully before you extract living colonies. Camponotus would not do well on cheese, for example. Why not insects and sugary liquid, like they eat naturally?

[Water4]

Thanks for you input Bats.
I have 5 Camponotus queens I captured last month, in test tube set ups. Hopefully I'll be more successful with them this year. If any produce workers, of course I'd feed them like they eat naturally.

The one queen that survived from last summer is not Camponotus. She does not seem to like sugary liquids. The key of course is to positively ID her. I will make that happen.

What are the pros and cons of raising an Aphaenogaster colony from a fertile queen and extracting a small intact living colony?

[Batspiderfish]

Pros are that you get to be impatient. Cons are that you are extracting a colony whose queen was part of the <1% that survived her first couple years in the wild, probably just to kill the colony, which will have trouble adjusting to captivity.

I would revisit this option once you know you can take care of them.

Nice to see another Mainer! Do you live here? Or is it only for the summer?

[Water4]

Thanks again for your advise.
I've lived here since I was 7, now I have a grandson almost that age. And yes, you don't see "another Mainer!" often. I guess that is one of the things I love about Maine.