What's Happening to my queen?

[AntFarmer7]

I have a colony of L. Niger that is now out of hibernation and has been acting strangely. First, they put their dead ants and garbage and things EVERYWHERE. They've never consistantly put anything anywhere. I've never changed their setup since I got them. Second, every day or so the queen comes out of the colony along with most of her workers, stays above ground for a while, then goes back in. Is any of that normal? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dann28]

Are your ants dumping their garbage and dead in the nest? If so, thats a bad sign and will probably lead to mold or other dangers to your ants, if not then i'm not too sure, my colony does the same with their dead. Also when the queen comes out of the nest, does she look stressed? If she does then that's also a pretty bad sign. I'm not an expert on this type of stuff but hopefully this helped somehow.

[AntFarmer7]

Trouble is, I can't see in their nest. Also, how can I tell if she is stressed?

[JoeHostile1]

Sounds like they don’t like the conditions inside the nest. What is the nest made out of. The most serious problem besides some sort of poison/toxin would be that the nest is too dry. Is the nest made out of dirt/sand? It could be too wet and the tunnels are collapsing or flooding which is causing the queen to come out.

[AntFarmer7]

Oh, that must be it! Their nest is made of sand and I had just watered it.