Chapter Three - The First Brood

After completely sealing myself in my new chamber, I began to feel safe at last.  My journey here was after all a dangerous one, and a number of my sisters and brothers perished, I don't know how many, but I saw a few die.  I am one of the lucky ones.

Anyway, I was nicely settled into my new home.  So I decided to rest for a period of time, probably a day or so.  This was a necessary thing to do, it helped me to regain my strength.  You may remember that I once had wings, well the muslces that I used to flap those wings were now completely useless.  I had no food with me, and no water, my instincts kicked in, and I re-ingested my old wing musles and turned them into energy and proteins which I stored within my body.  Another reason why I waited was to allow the chamber walls to settle, and it gave me a chance to make minor repairs to the walls.  I wouldn't want it to collapse on my new brood now would I?.  Eventually it came the time to lay my first eggs.  I laid them one after another until I had a brood of 14.  I could have carried on laying, but it would be very difficult to raise a brood any larger than 14 on my own.  After I had finished laying, I turned around and felt the eggs with my antenae, I could feel that they were all healthy.

Over the next few weeks my baby eggs slowly turned into larvae.  These are a strange J shape and ever-so hungary.  My time was taken up with tending to my brood.  Cleaning them, turning them, moving them, and feeding them.  I would turn or move them to keep them as close to our favourite temperature as possible.  This helps them to grow, and keeps them nice and healthy.

Weeks more passed and I watched my brood grow and turn into pupae.  These ants are nearly ready to become born into the world just like I was.  They are a white colour at first, shaped like us, with tiny specks for eyes and tiny leggs and antennae...a miniture version of me, slowly they changed colour and finally I knew that it was time for my first born to become proper workers.

Slowly one of my babys woke from her incubation.  Her legs moved, her antennae moved, her head moved.  Then she moved towards me, and for the first time we communicated, it was a moment of pure joy that I will never forget for the rest of my life.  What I said to her is a story for another day!