After a while with only seeds as food for the colony they have done it well.
The rooms were enlarged and there is a nice pile of pupea. Many new workers in the nest. I think there are now 200 workers.
Their new residence is largely finished and ready for use. Meanwhile, there is what changed at the decor in the outside world, a lot more practical
I have added a glass plate above the sand-nest, so that, must the workers pile up the sand there is no problem with escaping ants. I've supported it with pieces of silicone tubing so it stays nice and straight.
Talcum powder on the edges of the formicarium:
Here the two nests together to compare:
You can clearly see the growth of algae that has formed.
Here you see the nest itself, you can also see that much has collapsed.
The move, I had / have really no idea what I was doing. I have placed the old nest in the new one. And I've made with pieces of wood a small bridge. Much success it wasn't. These ants aren't good climbers.
Before the ants where placed in the new nest I have made some pictures and movies:
Moving across the wooden sticks didn't work as expected. I have then, with any risk, overturned carefully the outside world into te new outside world.
I know that these ants when they are under the sand (more than 10cm deep) easily find/dig a way back, so there wasn't a problem.
I was just worried about the larea and pupea that still would be underground. But with a sieve it was easy to find it back.
After more than 24 hours in the new nest the workers where still busy with digging in the sand, looking for workers and brood. Food was not accepted because they were too busy.I was pretty sure I had everything sieved, but this morning I stood with a friend for the tank and suddenly something strange crawling out of the sand, it was the queen! Apparently I missed her when I sieved the sand. She was immediately surrounded by a dozen workers which immediately took the queen and brought her to the nest. A short movie:
Pieces that were digged by the workers, I think it looks nice:
Workers with sugar water:
Workers with fly:
Workers with cricket. They still bit off the legs before they take the prey to the nest.
And than a picture from when they where in the previous nest. All the stones stabbing at about the same height in the ceiling of one of the rooms.
Is this a coincidence or not? It's true that there always will be workers who are looking for suitable stone, they even dig them up. Then they dig like a dog. Stones will also be used to control humidity in the nest.
I suspect that they already have dig a lot, especially to see the pile of sand in the outside world. I haven't looked into the nest itself, I let them do for a while.
I give only crickets and flies, because I don't have the time to search for seeds.
Today an update. First my apologies for let you guys waiting. All this because I am currently very busy.
The colony isn't going good since a week. First there were many workers who sat still in the outside world, far from the rest, so it would go about sick ants. That eventually died. Now I count more than 100 dead ants.
since a few days ago it was done with the dead ants in the outside world. So to be sure I looked in the nest itself (For the first time), there was no more to see than some vague rooms and a few tunnels. At that moment I saw some larvae3 and pupae. I also saw that workers were locked in rooms at the front (side of the outside world). Now since yesterday and today have healthy workers actively digging into the outside world, again as a dog would do, so with the front legs. I still give daily food and drink.
I also placed some test tubes in the outsideworld so that they could possibly move, but it doesn't look at it.