Against the odds. 5 Queen Tetramorium Immigrans

[AntChuck]

So 16 days ago I gave an update on my colonies. Included was a group of 5 Tetramorium queens who raised a large batch of brood together. At the time of update they had already had nanatics for a couple of weeks around 20 or so. I went on a 10 day vacation out of state in which I was extremely concerned that I would return to a single queen or worse case scenario no queens surviving... The 3 days prior to leaving I overfed them half a mealworm per day and the day I left I gave them an entire mealworm as well as a *** SPAM *** soaked in honey (I ran out of AC test tubes as I connected fresh tubes to all my colonies in case of mold outbreaks).

I returned today to find all 5 queens alive and well, nanatic count appears to be around 40 and the brood pile is enormous with so so so many in the pupae stage. Whats surprising is that in majority of articles, posts, experiences I have read regarding attempting to have a multi-queen colony of this species is that an overwhelming amount have stated that when nanativs arrived the queens either fought to the death or were killed my the nanatics themselves. With some of these nanatics a month or more old I find myself hoping that this will actually remain a 5 queen colony which is extremely rare for this species... They received their first fresh insect post vacation a few hours ago and its nearly devoured.... Crossing my fingers!

[TherealIABAST]

Nice, everything worked out great! Take that, Murphy!