Day 1:

I went over to Eckington today to see my family.  Donna and I called into my mum’s where Donna started gardening.  After turning over an old slate tile, Donna found a large ant colony.  I’ve been waiting two and a half years for some ants for my farm so mum and I collected around 20 ants and eggs.

The ants are safely in their new home (minus a few that managed to escape (they’ll turn up somewhere in the house no doubt)).  They have moved the eggs to the left of the farm and have started exploring, it looks like they will start their first tunnel at the middle front, nowhere near the starter holes that I made!

More photos to follow!

Webcam (not 24hrs):

Watch live video from Moaks.com Ant Farm on Justin.tv

Day 2:

24 hours from introducing the ants they have moved all the eggs together and extended the starter tunnel. If you look at Day 2 in the photos, you can see the start of two chambers, maybe the eggs will be placed down here?

I think I have my first dead ant.

Day 3:

I can confirm, we’ve lost a good soldier!

They don’t seem very active this evening, however last night and during the day today they have been busy making two new tunnels. The eggs are still in the same location, I was hoping that the eggs would have been moved down into the main chamber! I put the webcam on the rear today as that seemed best to show the two new tunnels, however the majority of the ants are on top of the eggs doing very little. It’s been very warm today, think I need to keep them cooler.

Day 4:

I kept the ants in a cooler part of the house today.  It was shaded and seemed to help the ants perk up slightly, there was also less condensation inside the farm.

A lethargic day for the ants tunnelling wise, they have made slight progress as the two newer tunnels now run the depth of the fitting from back to rear. They seem to be spending their time tending to the eggs, which they constantly guard and move around, keeping them cool. One of the eggs looks a little darker than the rest and they seem to pay this one more attention, I presume it’s going to hatch soon!  The webcam has been off all day so I’m going to have it on for the next few hours.

Day 15:

The tunnel digging has slowed down, however the ants have joined tunnels from both ends of the farm together, in the wild this is to aid ventilation I believe.  The big news though is that a queen has hatched from the eggs I introduced.  A few regular ants have also hatched, these are easy to spot with the naked eye as they are somewhat paler than the others.

Day 17:

Three queens in total have now hatched (see the photos).  It’s also interesting to see that the ants have made a small pile of rubbish which consists of a couple of dead ants and waste.  I tried to clean this out but I have to do it in short shifts as as soon as I take off the top they smell freedom and try to escape! Had some requests off Justin.TV to continue streaming, I’ll set this up again in the next few days.

Questions & Answers from Justin.TV (From the Webcam)

“hello

saw your ant farm set-up . very cool. I always wanted to give one a try i know of this website http://www.infowest.com/life/ants.htm

my buddy had a farm, and when he opened it to let air inside. they antz, tried to get out soo bad.

the only question I have is. Do you think they live a good life? i do not want to see ants suffer the whole time.

i do understand they have a very short life span. have you had one before

thank you very much”

paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your message. I think the ants have a good life in the farm. They are free from predators which removes the stress element and have a constant supply of food. They can carry on with their natural behaviour, tunnelling ect. I know they only have a short life span and it’s my hope to treat them well and learn a few things about them during this time. With the help of the internet I can also show other people how to treat them well and hopefully other people will take it up as a hobby and provide good, safe homes to the 1 quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) ants in the world.

Best regards,

Mark