The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I was wondering if there is a safe way to slow down a Queens egg laying process, I figured keeping them cool-ish may work, because I'm not able to move them into a larger set-up at the moment that a colony would require. Would doing that be in anyway dangerous to their health?

I suspect that depends on the species. I know that boosting the temperature (up to about 85­°F/30°C for most species) increases the speed. If it's a temperate species, 65°F is probably safe. On the other hand, even at higher temperatures, it usually takes 2 months to go from egg to nanitic worker. You'll want to keep your colony in one or two test tubes until they're about a year (or 2 years, for slow-growing species like Camponotus) old. You may not need the larger setup for quite some time.