Can queens become infertile

[SanctumPrime]

Strange question... Can a queen stop being fertile? Or have something happen to where she starts producing only unfertilized eggs? I have a colony that has started producing lots of males and I noticed the newest batch of eggs aren't being kept in nice neat piles like usual. I've seen that with new infertile queens and their first eggs, but not with an established colony. It's camponotus colony, btw.

[Antloverhuman]

If the queen is producing only males, then the queen is infertile like yours. But i dont think the queen would get infertile.

[SYUTEO]

She probably ran out of.. you know what I mean.

[Antloverhuman]

She probably ran out of.. you know what I mean.

But wouldn't that take a lot of years? He said the eggs were not in a neat pile so could it be they were trying to find perfect humidity and temperature for eggs?

[SYUTEO]

She probably ran out of.. you know what I mean.

But wouldn't that take a lot of years? He said the eggs were not in a neat pile so could it be they were trying to find perfect humidity and temperature for eggs?

Possibly, but some species don't put their eggs in a pile even though they are fertilized.

[AntsLuxembourg]

If the queen is producing only males, then the queen is infertile like yours. But i dont think the queen would get infertile.

well one explanation could be, that he pulled out too soon.
But honestly, it could just be part of that camponodus species. Do you know which one exactly it is? Are you feeding them enough and the right things?

[Antloverhuman]

But honestly, it could just be part of that camponodus species. Do you know which one exactly it is? Are you feeding them enough and the right things?

Maybe that his colony is now producing alates so queen would need alot of proteins

[SanctumPrime]

If the queen is producing only males, then the queen is infertile like yours. But i dont think the queen would get infertile.

well one explanation could be, that he pulled out too soon.
But honestly, it could just be part of that camponodus species. Do you know which one exactly it is? Are you feeding them enough and the right things?

As far as I can tell they're Camponotus Pennsylvanicus. I'm alternating crickets and mealworms for protein, and honey as the primary sugar source.

I noticed that I had knocked my heat lamp from it's optimal position above the nest. I've corrected that and they might be organizing the eggs a bit more now. So that may have been my issue?

This is my first colony so I'm still learning a lot. It just seems weird that all of a sudden it started producing a bunch of male alates, and no queen alates.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Could be that it's the workers who lay those eggs.