Within this little drawer, I have some really special friends.
Ants, carpenter ants to be exact!
Each one of these test tubes houses a queen ant and her very first generation of worker
ants whom she raised over the past 60 days.
We on the channel have been following these queens and their growing ant kingdoms for
two months and hope to soon keep huge pet ant colonies from them.
But AC Family, something special is happening today for each one of these burgeoning ant
colonies.
You see, 60 days ago, each queen was captured during their annual mating nuptial flight.
The newly mated and pregnant queens were placed into a test tube and completely sealed within
it, to simulate the founding chambers the queens would have constructed for themselves
in the wild, for the rearing of their ant colonies.
Each queen laid eggs, and the larvae that hatched from them were each raised off a nutritious
soup, manufactured by the queen’s body from broken down muscle tissue from her thorax
and regurgitated up, as a kind of ‘ant milk’ fed to a suckling ant baby.
Finally, just a few weeks ago, each queen began welcoming their first generation of
worker ants, known as nanitics, as they one by one hatched from their cocoons.
These nanitics are crucial, as they are the ant pioneers, on whose shoulders rests the
future success of the colony.
It was important that these nanitics survive to do their very important work!
But AC Family, look at this.
The nanitics have begun to pull on the cotton that blocks their test tube.
This only means one thing!
The ants are hungry and are ready to break out and forage for food.
The queen herself looked quite thin now, and it seems she’d begun to live off her fat
stores in her abdomen.
Worker ants tried begging the queen for more of the ‘ant milk’ they were reared off,
but it was no use.
She had run completely dry on it now.
Mother Nature only gave her just enough to rear the nanitics to adulthood.
The nanitics themselves begged each other for food but it was futile; every ant was
completely dry.
Surely every larva here, too, was also on standby waiting for food.
And so guys, we ant keepers look for all of these signs to determine whether or not a
starting ant colony is ready for their next major and critical life event: the colony’s
very first true meal!
Stay tuned because today is the day, we unpop the cotton from all of these founding test
tubes for the first time in 60 days, to allow these young ant colonies and their hungry
queens to enjoy their first real meal as a family, and trust me, you guys will love how
they reacted to it!
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AC Family, these ants are about to receive a special feast and taste something they’ve
never had before, and watching the ants fill up was just oh so satisfying!
Do stay tuned for the queen’s first feeding since she’d left her birth colony 60 days
ago, and also I do have an important question for you guys and will be needing your help
now that we’re at this point in the colonies’ development, so keep on watching until the
end.
Behold, AC Family!
The meal which each of our ant colonies will be feasting upon.
Let’s open it up!
This here is sweet jelly, brown sugar flavour.
Mmmm!
I think they’ll really like this.
Doesn’t it look delicious?
I scooped up a tiny bit with a tooth pick.
No ant can resist it, and it contains some valuable nutrients, sugars, and a bit of protein
that the colony could really use for their first feeding day.
So let’s get to it!
Like opening a vault that had been sealed for centuries, I carefully removed the cotton.
The queen instinctively retreated deeper into the nest.
She was the VIP, well VIA, and needed to be protected!
As quickly as I could I placed the blob of brown sugar jelly onto the floor and replaced
the cotton.
Two ants instantly found it and began to feast.
Yay!
A third ant discovered the goods.
Then a fourth!
And a fifth.
And a sixth.
This was awesome!
Can you imagine what these ants might be thinking right now?
The flavour of brown sugar was something they’ve never tasted before, and I’m sure the sheer
volume of it excited the ants.
Up until now, they had only known the conservative droplets of their queen’s ant milk, but
in this very moment they were lost in the abundant, dreamy goo of this sweet jelly.
In terms of the queen, she along with two guards remained at the very back of the nest,
for safety.
This of course was a good practice.
I think at this point, the queen didn’t know yet that the nanitics had found food,
but whatever the situation was, every good queen trusts in her nanitics to handle things.
I’m sure these two guards were also starving, but they needed to watch over the brood and
the queen.
Patience was a virtue.
They’d be feeding soon.
So let’s have a look at what exactly is happening here.
Each of these ants are feeding and now filling up their first stomach, known as a crop or
social stomach.
It’s essentially like an ant lunch box.
Food entering their social stomach gets stored and will be regurgitated up later to be fed
to other ants via mouth to mouth transfer, known as trophallaxis, which you guys saw
attempting to happen earlier when the ants were begging each other for food.
Carrying food inside you is an awesome adaptation in ants because it means you have your mandibles
free to use and you’re not physically carrying food back to the colony, when the ants start
foraging into the dangerous outside world where having the complete freedom to move
could mean the difference between life and death.
At one point I saw the queen move forward to smell what was going on, with her antennae
but she didn’t risk advancing further.
She had to trust in her nanitics.
And then, the most beautiful thing happened.
Look!
One of the workers returned to the queen to give her her very first dose of sweet jelly,
freshly collected from the blob.
Her 2 month-long fast had finally ended.
Isn’t that beautiful?
The worker rushed back to get more.
“Mmmmm,” the queen thought.
“That was rather nice!
I would like some more!”
The ants rushed to consume the goods as quickly as possible.
In the natural world being able to process and eat food quickly on location is a great
survival skill, as thieves and predators can pop in from anywhere at any time.
Another worker came to deliver the queen’s second dose.
Mmmmm!
You might notice the queen using her claws to rub the ant’s face.
I believe this stimulates the regurgitation reflex.
Ants do this when feeding each other via trophallaxis but they usually use their antennae.
I love watching the queen’s satisfied face as she swallows the last bit of food.
So cute!
The ants continued to gobble up the blob as quickly as they could, making frequent trips
to the queen to feed her.
Sadly, the guards did not move this entire time, as they needed to stand guard over the
young.
Over the next hour, I watched as the ants continued to feed from the blob.
The queen looked so happy and content now.
It was amazing to think that all her hard work and sacrifice had finally paid off, and
she had officially passed the test that not all queen ants successfully complete, i.e.
the hardest part of the colony founding process which is raising the nanitics to adulthood
to the point where they are doing all the work of the colony, so she could focus solely
on egg laying for the rest of her life.
The hardest part was now over for the queen!
All she needed to do now is sit back, produce eggs and let the workers handle the rest,
including food collection.
But what the heck, why not live a little one last time!
To my surprise, I caught the queen breaking protocol and feeding with her nanitics.
I loved watching the queen feed communally with her nanitics like this.
They surely deserved it.
They had a lot of work ahead of them, and a whole lifetime of adventure to live out
under our care.
I went on to feed sweet jelly blobs to each of the other ant colonies and they each relished
their first meals.
This was Colony 1, whom we’ve been watching.
Colony 2, Colony 3 and 4.
Wow!
Look at how extended their gasters are from full social stomachs!
Now here’s something about Queen 5.
If you recall, she’d been struggling with raising her nanitics.
Her brood was slow to develop, and I suspected she wasn’t fertilized, meaning she failed
to mate during her nuptial flight 60 days ago.
Unfertilized queens, due to the ant genetics, are only capable of producing male ants, and
judging from the huge size of cocoons, it does look like she has been rearing male ants,
but we’ll have to see what ends up hatching from there to know for sure.
She is rather fat, so it’s also possible that this whole time she’s been eating some
of her eggs for nourishment so she could produce stronger and larger workers, a different tactic
and a more quality over quantity approach, which also probably doesn’t feel as crappy
for the queen.
Either way, I gave her food, as well, and she ate it cum gusto.
Good luck, Queen 5.
I’m not giving up on you!
Colony 6, oh my, have a look at all those balloon-like gasters full of food.
I love that!
And finally colony 7 and 8.
And there you have it, all our ant colonies fed and eating!
Alright, AC Family, now at the start of the video, I mentioned I’d be needing your help
and it’s this.
I don’t have a need for eight carpenter ant colonies, so I was planning on keeping
one or more and releasing the rest, and since these are native to my area, it would help
the local ecosystem, too.
But my question to you all now is, which ant colonies should we keep?
Let me know what you guys think in the comments below, and once we determine which of the
ant colonies we’ll be keeping, I’ll free the remaining ant colonies and film how we
introduce them back into the wild.
The next day, peeking into the test tubes, I could see which larvae had their fill of
the sweet jelly as you could see the colour through their semi-transparent bodies.
Some queens had laid some eggs overnight, and workers with their full gasters made sure
to feed the larvae that were on hold waiting for food.
This was all truly beautiful to witness.
The blobs of sweet jelly would be enough to nourish the colonies for the next week or
so before they will need to forage again.
I have some amazing plans for their next meal, but I won’t reveal what just yet!
By the way, if any of you guys also want to try keeping ants with me, just head on over
to my website at Antscanada.com and click the QUEEN ANTS FOR SALE tab to find ant sellers
in your area selling queen ants with brood, like these starting colonies you see here,
or if you’re lucky, you’ll even find sellers of fully mature ant colonies with lots of
workers.
And while you’re there be sure to also pick up all your pro-ant keeping gear, ant farms,
and literature at our shop.
I’d love for you guys to keep ants with me and witness for yourself all the amazing
things we see on this channel in real life within the comfort of your own home.
By the way, we ship out of the US.
Thank you all so much for watching and following the journey of these carpenter ants with me.
I love that we get the unique opportunity to witness the miracle of ant life and how
these miniature ant armies start.
One thing I learned from watching the queens raise their ant colonies was that with patience,
hard work, and sacrifice, eventually there is a light at the end of the long dark and
challenging tunnel, or a blob of sweet jelly, rather, and that even ants need to work hard
to achieve success in life, and nothing comes easily.
So until next week, thank you so much for watching, and supporting the ants.
It’s ant love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
Follow these continuing, real life ant stories by smashing that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL
ICON now, and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload.
Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single time including now.
It would really mean a lot to me, guys.
Thank you!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you would like to watch extended
play footage of Queen 1 feeding with her nanitics.
Go check them out!
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Two weeks ago, we asked:
What is a nanitic?
Congratulations to Sabrina Poon who answered:
An ant belonging to the first generation.
Congratulations Sabrina, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
How many stomachs does an ant have?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free Ultimate Ant
Keeping Handbook from our shop!
Hope you could subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video, to help
us keep making more.
It’s ant love forever!