Tuesday, April 25, 2006
New cells + new introduced worker
Over the past few days, I have noticed a slow but steady increase in the number of new cells. Most of these now have eggs in them; a couple already house larvae.
There is now a fourth worker, bringing the colony size to five. However, this worker did not hatch out from this nest. I obtained her after a failed nest relocation. I installed another nest of this species outside my window, but did not give them enough time to adapt to the new surroundings. The queen and two workers thus flew away. The remaining worker deserted the nest and flew into my living room from the window.
Recalling several incidents when foreign workers joined another nest, I caught her and decided to try something. I put her in a container for a couple of hours to make her less flighty, then gently opened the cover and raised the container to this nest. She climbed out without hesitation. The queen and two other workers immediately gathered around and appeared to be "licking" or gently biting her. This is probably a way of enforcing their dominance. However, she was quickly accepted into this colony, and soon started foraging and even repairing cells.
There is now a fourth worker, bringing the colony size to five. However, this worker did not hatch out from this nest. I obtained her after a failed nest relocation. I installed another nest of this species outside my window, but did not give them enough time to adapt to the new surroundings. The queen and two workers thus flew away. The remaining worker deserted the nest and flew into my living room from the window.
Recalling several incidents when foreign workers joined another nest, I caught her and decided to try something. I put her in a container for a couple of hours to make her less flighty, then gently opened the cover and raised the container to this nest. She climbed out without hesitation. The queen and two other workers immediately gathered around and appeared to be "licking" or gently biting her. This is probably a way of enforcing their dominance. However, she was quickly accepted into this colony, and soon started foraging and even repairing cells.
