The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

So I've had a roughly 50 strong colony of Myrmica Rubra since I bought them last November. Their numbers haven't grown that much but to be fair they haven't been getting the most protein so that's probably on me. Anyways, when I took them out of hibernation in February this year the queen laid a bunch of eggs pretty much right away, and they have all eclosed, however, since then she hasn't laid a whole lot, maybe a couple of batches. I've heard that these ants do lay in groups with breaks in between, but she hasn't in at least a month or two. In the last few weeks, I've increased their intake of protein to an insect every day, in hopes to help her out, but she's being persistent! Does anyone have any advice as to what might have caused this? and how I might encourage her? I was also thinking of adding another queen to the colony after nuptial flights this year as I thought it would probably up the egg laying rate. Ty in advance for anything.

Myrmica queens tend to lay less eggs because of thier polygyne nature (many queens). Adding a new queen could prove useful but do be careful as the colony can still regect the extra queen (so be carefull and place the new queen away from the nest so she can enter naturally). Also have you thought of increasing the nest size as the nest could be overcrowded which could lead to the queen saving her eggs until more space is provided. Other than that increasing the protein intake is my only other suggestion.