Only one ant is digging, is this normal?

[AntScape]

Hey everyone!

I hope I posted this in the correct part of the forum!

My boyfriend and I just got our first ants, we are super excited about this. My boyfriend who has long been interested and fascinated by ants has wanted this for a long time and after he introduced me to some ant facts and watching countless videos about antkeeping I got hooked on these amazing creatures.

So as I said we just got our tiny colony of Messor Barbarus, we set everything up and were careful as not to stress our beauties out too much. We have the test tube covered and we put it into the outworld, attached to this is the, I'm not sure of the exact term in English, "digging place" where we hoped they will begin digging their nest.

To our surprise only after a few hours in their new home one of the ants started digging and she's been a dedicated digger since she started. Now a few days later she is still digging meanwhile the rest of the colony has covered most of the entrance to the test tube, I read on here that this might be because they feel like the outworld is too big for the colony size. However, Stephanie as we like to call our diligent digger continues on her own quest of digging, I'd say she has gotten the tunnel to about 3-4 cm long.

So my question, or rather questions, is whether or not this is normal behaviour; her being alone in the digging quest? Also we would love to know why she is doing this alone! The other question concerns the blocking of the tube, do we need to do something about the size of their outworld, I feel uncomfortable moving them again because of stress but do we need to do something or just let them be in there until they are ready to come out? The tube is unfortunately covered so we can't see what they are up to in there however we think it's fine as long as they are fine.

Thank you for your help and an awesome community!

[AM1C39]

This is completely normal behavior, you have nothing to worry about.

[AntScape]

This is completely normal behavior, you have nothing to worry about.

Thank you so much for your fast answer!

So is she digging on the future nest then?

[AM1C39]

Yes that would be the only explanation.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Depending on their size I would say it is normal that only one ant is digging. Basically they are trying to build a new home without risking to many workers. That would be my explanation for this. Anyway let me know if you have any questions related. Got a big colony myself which got their new nest expansion recently.