Help with my camponotus queen - she isn't laying eggs

[AntArie]

I am a new ant keeper. I caught a queen around Thanksgiving (November), and she is still alive now. I have her in the recommended test tube setup, but she has not been laying eggs. She has wing scars, which means she is most likely a queen, but is there anything I can do to help her lay eggs and produce a brood faster.

Thank you!

[NZsayde666]

She might have not been fertilised.
Try catching a male and putting it in with her.

[qwerty264]

Placing a male inside the tube will most likely stress the queen out and they will almost certainly not mate. This is because the male will only fertilize an unfertilized queen when she releases her pheromones that invites males. trust me because ive actually tried it several times and none succeeded. As for the queen not laying the eggs, it is most likely that the queen is fertilized as she has already shed her wings and just needs time. The only other possible reasons is that she tore it off accidentally or she is not a queen. I would suggest you put the queen inside a dark place where there is little activities going on around it to reduce stress and only check on her every week or two (resist the temptation, ive been there). Depending on the species and conditions, ive had queens that started to lay eggs in 2 weeks and only had their first workers in around 2 months. From experience, usually the bigger the size of the species, the longer it takes. Ant keeping requires a lot of patience, good luck!