My Messor Barbarus colony :D

[AntsDakota]

I'm not going to hibernate them this year. I think this colony is to small for that. One year without hibernation will not harm them, and they will be stronger next year.

Queen ants from temperate regions can survive even without workers.

[AntsLuxembourg]

well. Actually it kinda will. They might not need to properly hibernate but it would still be best to do it if possible. It gives the queens a breakd from egglaying and the year after she might lay out a lot of eggs. I will hibernate mine or at least put them in a room with temperatures of arround 16°C. Luckily my cave will be cold enough for that

Not sure if messor barbarus got an inner clock or not but I think it's best to do what nature had planned for them to be.

[AntAnett]

I don't have any cave, and my fridge might be to cold for them. And it's a first year. I/m not saying I will never hibernate. I will only skipp this year.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Yeah the fridge is definitely too cold unless it is a wine fridge which can stay at temperatures of around 17-19 °C
I am sure colder temperatures will kill those little fellows :C
But I would recommend that you try to hibernate them at least for a month. It keeps the queen healthy and if can help the growth rate

I myself have put all my locally caught ants inside the fridge and I also put some of them into new and proper test tubes. I had to force them since it was a bit late but I tried to move the queens as gently as possible since the workers are not a delicate as the queens. I also worked with a second container (a small plastic bottle I kept) which I connected with some tubing so the ants cannot escape. Some of them had red cottons at the water and I just wanted to make sure that it isn't harmful. If I had a microscope I could actually sample my finds

Like doing some biologists work
But the good microscopes are probably very expensive ^^

Well my messor barbarus got a fresh testtube with a seperate chamber and A LOT of seeds. I will keep the workers of the old colony and run some more experiments. It was interesting to see that the workers didn't even dared to eat the apple and cherry seeds I offered. But they went straight for the pumpkin seed I offered