An antkeeping tip and experiment request

[MCWren]

Of course I know I'm an ant noob and I've never had a colony before, but here I am nonetheless, giving advice to you. Two days ago, I decided I would feed my favorite queen, a Camponotus chromaiodes. I took a small piece of aluminum foil, stabbed a mealworm with a toothpick, and squeezed some mealworm guts onto the aluminum foil. I also put some honey on the foil. I then put the foil into my queen's test tube, put the test tube in a duct tape "holster" I made for the test tube (to block out light), and then waited about 15 minutes, checking every once in a while to watch my queen eat. I proceeded to remove the foil and put the queen back in my warm, dark closet. The next day, I looked at my queen's larvae, and they were MUCH bigger, and there were more of them. I encourage you guys (and girls) to try this, and tell me your results. Try out different insects: mealworms, dubia roaches, superworms, etc. See which insect works the best. If you have a lot of queens of the same species, *cough* Madvampy *cough*, then try a different feeder insect for a few different queens, as well as with and without honey, and report the results to this thread, for the betterment of the antkeeping hobby and faster development of our queens. Thank you.

[larynx]

yes, this is, giving them a "protein boost". insects= protein, honey= sugar. i do this with some of my queens that "slow down development". it isnt necessary, but can help in some instances. you really should be careful though. when queens smell other insects (or insect parts), it is possible for them to go in to "defense mode", and hurt themselves or possibly hurt or eat the eggs. ive had camponotus sp. try and "fight" a cricket leg i put in her tube before, then she turned around and ate her eggs after.
great idea for an experiment though. im curious what the results would be.

[MCWren]

great idea for an experiment though. im curious what the results would be.

Do you by any chance have lots of queens of the same species, and different feeder insects?
I only have mealworms (which I originally got to feed wild birds), and I don't have many queens of the same species.

[MCWren]

Be careful, though. Yesterday I fed my Camponotus chromaiodes queen some honey on aluminum foil, but the foil turned upside down and rubbed honey on the inside of her test tube, forcing me to change her test tube to avoid mold.

[larynx]

great idea for an experiment though. im curious what the results would be.

Do you by any chance have lots of queens of the same species, and different feeder insects?
I only have mealworms (which I originally got to feed wild birds), and I don't have many queens of the same species.

yeah, i have a few. lol. i may try this next year. i will set aside 50-100 for this specific purpose.

[MCWren]

Awesome! I can't believe you have 50-100 to "set aside"! Why wait until next year though?

[larynx]

Awesome! I can't believe you have 50-100 to "set aside"! Why wait until next year though?

lol. dude. i leave soooo many queens were i find them flying because i find so many. i dont currently have 50-100 to set aside, only because i limit myself. also a limited number of founding setups. but next summer i will be prepared for this experiment. we just may have to bump this topic every once in a while so i dont forget. lol

[AntsRule]

Awesome! I can't believe you have 50-100 to "set aside"! Why wait until next year though?

lol. dude. i leave soooo many queens were i find them flying because i find so many. i dont currently have 50-100 to set aside, only because i limit myself. also a limited number of founding setups. but next summer i will be prepared for this experiment. we just may have to bump this topic every once in a while so i dont forget. lol

A little trick I figured out is too save the link to this topic and then paste it in a new topic and click save as draft. Then just go to your saved drafts and pull it up. You can even title the topic based on your saved link.