Queen in established colony stops laying eggs

[ooper01]

I thought I read somewhere that some species of ants only have certain times of the year where they produce new brood. Is that right? I have a few Formica colonies that I collected from the local mountains here in Utah, USA. (At least I think they are Formica. Others have suggested that they are.) I found them in rotting logs while looking for new queens. As I was ripping open chunks of the rotting logs, I happened upon a few young colonies and saw the queen so I collected her and as many of the workers as I could. I put them in Hybrid Nests http://AntsCanada.com/products-page and they immediately laid eggs and doubled or tripled the size of the colony in about 3 months or so. One colony has close to 100 workers, one has about 50 workers and one about 30. All three colonies appear to be a different species of Formica. The colony with 30 workers actually has two queens.

Now the queens are not laying any more eggs. There is no brood in these three colonies. Wondering if this is normal or if I need to do something to encourage additional brood. Does it mean they need a different type of food? Different temperature? Something else?

[Rovvov99]

This is normal, your queens are just taking a break. Your colony has grown exponentially over the last few months, this costs the queen a lot of energy and now she has to rest a bit to regain that energy.

[ooper01]

Good to know. Thanks!

[antscanada]

It's normal for Formica to stop laying eggs in the end of summer and to hibernate with no brood.

Yes, I second the above post. Wow a Formica colony with over 100 workers? That is bigger than I could ever get a Formica colony. Great work!

[Ants4fun]

I read that Prenolepis imparis only lays once per year.