Well, as promised, I thought I would bring you some initial pics of my own ant colonys. 

Camponotus Ligniperda

This is my first colony of a carpenter ant species.  The first thing that struck me was the size of them.  I was aware that they are among the largest species in the world, but truly it was scary moving the queen into her new home.  Shes huge!  They are a great ant to look at, but I think they will be difficult to look after.  Some of the other people that I know who have had this species have all had poor results, losing their colonys after a while.  Time will tell if my approach will help or hinder their survival, I can only hope that it is a success.  Read more about Camponotus Ligniperda by clicking HERE.  

Myrmyca Ruginodis 

The first is a colony of Myrmica Ruginodis , or common red ants.  I have had the colony of 50 odd workers, Queen, and eggs for about 2 weeks now.  They have settled in very nicely, and seem to enjoy their surroundings.  Whats interesting about them is just how shallow their nest is.  They have only dug down about 3 inches or so.  They have been eating mainly dead flies (fresh ones, not bought dead ones).  They are also partial to dead mealworms and spiders.  They havn't really touched any much in the way of the honey water that I bought, and I havn't yet seen them touch any of the vitamin jelly either.  I recommend watering them every few days...by that I mean misting the fake plants in the basin area.

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Above is a picture of the original packaging that the ants came in.  As you can see, its a test tube with a cottonwool bung at one end with some form of nutrient behind it for them to feed on.  This is a close up...

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This is a picture of the starter kit that I bought from Antstore with the ants.  It consists of the large antfarm area, a smaller basin area, and connecting tube.  The second picture is a closeup of the farm area.

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Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Soon the expansion of the nest began in ernest.  I forced the issue really, a lot of people put the testtube in the basin area, and then let the ants move into the farm in their own good time.  I personally believe that putting them physically in the farm area asap causes them less stress, and lets them settle in quicker.  Below is a picture of the queen and some workers.

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Last but not least are a couple of pictures of the current ant farm with its chambers shown from the front and the back of the farm.

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Messor Barbarus

The Messor Barbarus are my 3rd colony of ants, and also has its own farm and basin from antstore.  They are a fantastic ant.  The queen is huge by comparison to the others, and has a black shiny body and red head.  These ants are very active at the moment, and are busy expanding the nest.  They came with 11 workers the queen and some eggs.  The workers can probably be split into 2 groups, large ones (soldiers ?) and smaller ones (workers ?).  The picture I have is of the queen, and I will be posting some more pictures later.  So far they have been eating canary seed mix, havn't touched the vitamin jelly or dead meal worm.  They will drink water, but I am keeping it to a minimum at the moment, and well away from the farm itself.   Now when I say they are active, I mean active...so far they have burrowed from the top of the farm to the bottom, including the red gravel which they have been steadily dragging up the tunnel to the surface.  Good stuff...now heres the queen.

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Updated 20/09/07

These ants have been moved now into a plaster nest.  This was made by me, and was great fun.  Check it out

This nest is about the size of a sheet of A4 paper and about 10cm in total depth.  What I used to make it is as follows:

1 x 4"x1"x5'6" Piece of Pine wood for the sides.

1 x A4 Sized sheet of 5mm think MDF for the base.

1 x A4 Sized sheet of glass/perspex for the top.

I also used some pre routed L shaped battening for the edges. 7 x 1kg bags of plaster of paris. 1 x length of 14mm tubing. 1 x 20x10x10 Antstore Basin.

Heres a picture of the ants nicely settled into it, showing also a newborn 'Callow' ant.

Currently there are 17 ants in total (origianally less than 10).  3 of these newborns have been born in the last 4 days.  2 of the Callows are the the same size newborn as some of the oldest ants, and will no doubt become Majors.  Along the way 3 ants have gone missing. 1 drowned in the smallest amount of water ever, and 2 went into hiding!  Probably escaped before I finally figured out where the gap was.

Tetramorium Caespitum

The Tetramoriums arrived during August.  I put them straight into an Antstore antfarm, with basin attached.  I had created a begineer tunnel for them.  Within a day they had completely filled in the hole so that I could'nt see them anymore.  That was the last time I saw the queen.  Every now and again I will see one of the workers moving around the top of the farm area.  Today (20/09/07) I even saw 2 of them outside.  This colony came with 1 queen and 5 workers, with no brood that I could see, these are a very small ant though, so it is possible I have missed them.

Lasius Niger

The Lasius Niger I captured on the nuptial flight days at the end of July.  One is in an ant farm, and I can see no eggs at all, and that is after 6 weeks.  The other is in a test tube, covered over again, but this time there are eggs, in fact four of them are in the cocoon stage, and surely going to hatch out very soon.