Guys, I’ve got some really good and bad news to share with you today.
AC Family, it’s time to talk about it.
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Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
I’m sure you guys have a tonne of questions, but I promise to go over everything.
The good news made me smile this week, and I’ll be getting to that in a sec, but as
for the bad news, when I learned about it, it made me really, really sad, especially
because I don’t think I nor any of you guys can do anything about it.
Anyway, keep on watching until the end as I’ll be needing your help on how to deal
with the situation I’m now facing.
But let’s get to the good news first.
It has to do with my fire ant colony, the Phoenix Empire.
So, if you’re new to the channel or perhaps haven’t been following the progress of my
latest ant colony, this here is the City of Ashes, an expansive metropolis home of a booming
fire ant colony known as the Phoenix Empire.
It’s incredible to know that the colony went from just a queen in a test tube and
some eggs to this massive fire ant city in about 4 months.
The colony is now easily numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
As a quick update tour through the City of Ashes, we start here at the Mothernest: the
Fire Fortress, an AC Ant Tower from antscanada.com which is full of brood, i.e. young fire ant
eggs, larvae, and pupae.
I suspect the queen is living somewhere in here, and perhaps we may see her later.
Above ground the ants are busy about their various activities, and those white creatures
you see there, are springtails, the colony’s clean up crew, which are welcome allies of
Phoenix Empire society, as they move around freely throughout the City of Ashes cleaning
up the ants’ garbage.
You’ll see them all over the place.
Moving through the network of tubes, that they’ve customized into legit underground
tunnels now, using gravel and soil to create barricades which I’m guessing somehow help
the ants manage their busy traffic to and from different parts of the city.
In fact, they’ve customized all areas of their territories to make them more fire ant
friendly.
Check out this chamber for instance, an AC Test Tube Portal which used to be a clean
and sleek crossroads.
Well, now the ants have completely made it their own by decorating it to their tastes
with gravel and debris.
Woah - Check out that huge supermajor lumbering by!
As you might have seen in a previous video a couple weeks ago, where I had the fire ants
undergo a taste test experiment, the Phoenix Empire now have a new chamber for sugary foods,.
Feel free to leave name suggestions for this Phoenix Empire sugarland area in the comments.
Moving on now to Hell’s Kitchen, which as you may have seen in a previous video has
also been completely redecorated and customized to their liking.
Now, you guys may be wondering what happened to that extra chamber called Shelfordella
which held a colony of roaches which would fall into Hell’s Kitchen.
Well, as some of you predicted, all the roaches ended up falling in so there were none left
to breed.
I think if we end up trying something like this in the future, I would need to incorporate
valve connectors, which we do have at the AC Shop, and simply open and close the roaches
off so they’re not all eaten at once.
So as you can see the City of Ashes is quite expansive now and Phoenix Empire life, very
busy, but it’s time to show you the good news!
The ants are currently preoccupied with their latest major operation, which filled me with
much joy.
Many of you have been asking if the ants have finally moved into their ac Hybrid Nest Mini,
I introduced to them four weeks ago.
Because the colony was so used to digging, they decided to treat the space as more of
a transit space, like a train station where their highways could pass through and ants
could hang out casually.
But peeking into the Hybrid Nest this week, I saw this.
Brood piles, brood piles, brood piles, brood piles!
What a sight!
There were tonnes of fire ant eggs, larvae, and pupae all piled up in the various chambers.
AC Family, look at them!
It was just amazing to see!
Their highways weaved through the tunnels of the Hybrid Nest passing the various groupings
of young.
I stared at the beautiful sight of it all for hours!
One of the reasons I loved this so much was because I’ve missed seeing a clear, unobstructed
view of what goes on inside the nest.
It’s been awhile.
As much as I love observing the ants digging their own tunnels in their Fire Fortress,
we sacrifice some visibility when the ants are given the liberty to dig, because they
are still able to partially hide behind soil, but here in the Hybrid Nest, we could see
everything.
I could clearly see ants snacking here, every little egg batch, larva, pupa, and even pupae
that were moments away from eclosing into adult fire ants.
It was just magnificent!
I tried to look for the queen but couldn’t spot her.
Can you guys see her?
I also see that they’ve customized certain areas like this great wall here, which I’m
guessing helps better control humidity and air flow in their nest.
So cool!
I think you guys know what’s next, though right?!
Please take a moment to VOTE here for a name for this official Phoenix Empire nesting site
within their AC Hybrid Nest Mini.
They’re all name suggestions from you guys in a previous video.
Thank you AC Council for your input!
OK, it looks like the ants are starting to move out brood due to my bright camera lights,
so let’s keep them covered and let them continue to move in in peace.
Alright, so now that you’ve heard the good news, it’s now time for the bad news.
No, it’s not about my other ants colonies and critters.
They are all fine, healthy, and growing well.
The bad news has to do with this channel, and all of you guys.
This week, I received an email from Youtube that said this:
Hi there,
We’re writing to let you know about an update to poll cards.
We have decided to discontinue poll cards on YouTube after June 10th due to low usage
(less than 0.2% of channels who uploaded a video this year used a poll card) and to focus
on other creator tools.
You have until July 10th to download your data for your poll cards.
After this date, the feature will no longer be available.
To poll your audiences, you can still use audience comments and freely available tools
like Google Forms.
Eligible creators can also use poll posts on the Community Tab.
Now if you’ve been following this channel for awhile, you’ll know why this is very
upsetting.
The entire content of this channel is driven by you guys.
From voting for ant colony and territory names, to helping me with solving problems the ants
and other creatures face, to determining the fates of every member of our Antiverse, this
channel is and always has been powered by you, the AC Family.
But now Youtube is removing the poll function in the icards, and having that interactive
element which greatly helped me keep connected to you guys and know what you were all thinking,
taken away in a couple months, makes me super, duper sad.
I don’t think there’s anything we can do to change Youtube’s mind on this, as
we’re apparently part of the 0.2% of creators that were using the polls, which by the way
also surprises me.
I even sent them a hopeless tweet.
So, this is where I’ll need your help, guys.
How can we keep interactive and connected with your very important roles in the lives
of our ants and all the Antiverse?
Inside I prefer you guys not have to navigate to some other website or platform to vote,
and I was considering maybe having voting happen in the comments somehow?
Perhaps provide a link to VOTE on my community tab after watching the video?
Or maybe I could leave the options of a poll as separate comments, heart them so they get
pushed up on the comments feed, and you guys can simply vote via a THUMBS UP?
Anyway, it’s all quite disheartening, and maybe you guys aren’t as bummed out about
this icard poll VOTING thing, as I am, but the poll function and seeing what you guys
felt about things, was super fun for me as a creator and caregiver of our ants.
It made it feel like we were caring for these ants together.
Anyway, I’d love to know if you guys have any suggestions and ways we could work around
it.
Whatever the case, I’m not mad at Youtube, as the Youtube platform has allowed me and
my pet ants and other critters to find all of you guys and keep connect to you all in
ways I never imagined.
This ant channel went from no subscribers to over 3 million, and the way I see it, together
we grew like an ant colony, and continue to grow every single day.
We’re an unstoppable force, AC Family.
So, once again, in the face of problems, I just look to the ants.
When change happens, when crises befall them, the ants always learn and adapt.
When something occurs that isn’t exactly to their liking, they’re versatile enough
to make changes and customize their environment to make it a more favourable place for them.
Regardless of what happens, the ants still have the final say on how things play out.
They gracefully manage to overcome obstacles, ride with the changes, and live their best
life with the tools and resources they’re given.
That to me is a true display of power worth emulating.
As the quote goes, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!”
I know we’ll be ok, guys.
Let’s think of how we too can adapt and stay connected like the massive and thriving
colony we are.
Thank you for watching, and supporting the ants!
It’s ant love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
What do you guys think?
How can we still preserve the interaction which is vital to the channel?
It was cool to see that the Phoenix Empire moved into their Hybrid Nest though, right?
So much more is ahead for the Phoenix Empire and other creatures of the ant room, so if
you haven’t yet, do SMASH 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 the Phoenix Empire within their AC Hybrid Nest Mini!
And guys, did you know that it’s anting season in the Northern Hemisphere, and you
don’t even need to leave your home to start an ant colony?!
You can catch pregnant queen ants from the safety of your own backyard, balcony, or open
window starting this month!
Be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your ant keeping and collecting gear shipped to
you in a special package from our ant-loving facility in the USA, so you can get the most
out of your ant keeping experience.
We ship worldwide and also offer full email support if you need our help!
We also have a helpful forum and ant colony trading marketplace on the site.
Visit AntsCanada.com today.
And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.
Last week, we asked:
What do you miss most when separated from the world and society?
Congratulations to Moldy Potato who answered:
I miss being with my friends.
Congratulations Moldy Potato, you just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from
our shop!
In this week’s AC Question of the Week we ask:
Name one thing you love about the Phoenix Empire’s territories, the City of Ashes.
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free ebook 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!