Yesterday, the Queens and Males flew again.  Sun high in the sky, just after lunchtime, no wind...perfect.  There were hundreds of them in the air.  I found one very very quickly that had shed its wings, and put into my container (the one I carry with me always ;)  )  As soon as I got home I prepared a container (small round tupaware tub) with some air holes in the lid (created with a hot needle), filled it with sand/loam I had left over, and created a small starter hole for her.  I'll let you all know how she gets on.

Today, the ground outside my work was jammed with queens looking for somewhere to burrow.  Now I don't exagerate when I say they may have been 50 odd in each square metre of ground.  Not seen that kind of action before.

The MR's are doing well, with excavations carrying on as usual.  The second chamber (nursery I called it) is now twice as big as the first chamber at about 2 cms round.  And there has been quite a bit of action going on in the tubing.  Its strange to watch but there are always 2 to 3 guards at the entrance to the tubing from the basin area.  This makes me think that perhaps the entire farm including the tubing is thought of by these ants as their nest...what are your thoughts?

The MB's are also doing well, though they are very quite now that the main excavations have been done.  I guess the activities increase with the number of ants in the nest.  What is interesting though is that I have not seen much in the way of feeding.  I have provided seeds, insect jelly, insects, honey etc, but you just dont see them eating it often.  One specific ant has been dragging the seeds from the basin area into the tube, but thats as far as they go, although come to think of it, I have seen one seed in the nest itself, so perhaps they are eating it.  I am definately going to get myself a heating lamp for the messors though, I do believe it may be just a little to cool for them at the moment.

More soon, I am going to try and talk the Mrs into getting another colony...specifically for the plaster nest I am currently constructing.