The AntsCanada Ant Forum's

I have had this Camponotus queen for about a year now, and am still waiting for more brood. She seems to always have at least a few workers, but for months now there have been no new brood as far as i can tell. I am aware that it could be the season, as it’s just now starting to warm up in my area, but I have been keeping them warm during the day with a heat lamp in my closet for about a month now. The heat lamp is not pointed at any part of the setup, but it does add ambient warmth in the closet. They have constant access to sugar water and regular water, and I feed them cut up mealworms at least once or twice a week. They have recently moved out of their test tube and into the small formicarium i have prepared for them.. although i am concerned that they will deposit their trash somewhere in the formicarium since the colony is still quite small.. hopefully they wont!

There was one incident last year where the heat lamp was bumped and ended up pointing near their test tube, and when i found out that evening, the queen and her nanitics werent looking great. I thought they might have died! D: but they perked up after cooling off. Im hoping that doesnt have anything to do with this issue..

What do y’all think? Is she not laying because its been winter, or could something else be going on? This is my first ant colony so i am doing my best to learn how to be a good daddy for my ant babies

UPDATE:

There is 1 egg I could see near the queen!! There is hope yet!! I have been waiting to check up on her all week so as to not disturb her. I will be looking forward to seeing how they are doing next weekend

iv'e heard camponotus lays in seasons like a bunch at one time then none then a bunch then none

So I may have been mistaken last time, but they really do have their first batch of eggs after all winter now! Seems like they are doing just fine!
It looks like they decided that the warmest dryest part of their setup was best for the eggs.