Greetings Ant Lovers,

I managed to capture an incredible and rare moment between a queen ant and her young on film! Our eight queen ants with brood are all working towards growing their own ant colonies, but as I checked in on their progress after 32 days of incubation in test tubes, I was stunned by what I witnessed and filmed in one of the test tubes. Hope you enjoy today’s episode!

RARE & BEAUTIFUL FOOTAGE of a QUEEN ANT Raising Her First Babies | Day 32

Oh man!

I captured the most incredible footage ever!

Behold the eight queen ants we’ve been following for over a month, since we first caught them fresh from their mating nuptial flight.

In the first week, we watched as some queens died by fungus, others from mites, and others—an explosion of gruesome parasitic maggots—

but these eight were the triumphant survivors who made it!

We watched these glorious queens lay eggs in their simulated claustral chambers,

and from them hatch their very first little tiny larvae.

It’s now Day 32, and I have a pretty awesome update for you guys,

and one sight in particular that I managed to capture on film was, hands down, one of the most mind-blowing and beautiful things

I’ve ever witnessed in all my years of ant keeping!

I can’t wait for you all to be the first in the world to watch it, too.

Welcome, everyone, to the AntsCanada ant channel.

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Welcome to the AC Family!

Enjoy!

Now in all my years of ant keeping, this founding stage—i.e. the stage at which a queen ant raises her first set of worker ants,

known as nanitics—is probably one of the most exciting and thrilling times as an ant keeper,

because we get to see the genesis or startup period of an ant colony,

the very challenging and critical time for a queen ant and her future colony,

as well as some of the most beautiful and moving scenes ever.

What I’m about to show you guys today is something that we ant keepers know happens in the wild,

but to the best of my knowledge, has not yet been filmed.

At least, I’ve never seen it before.

What is this rare footage, you ask?

Well, stay tuned, as it’s coming up!

So let’s get to it.

If you’re just joining us or haven’t been caught up on recent episodes, these eight queen ants are carpenter ants—

literally huge queens—housed in test tube setups simulating their claustral chambers

where they’ve been busy raising their future ant kingdoms!

I’ve kept them undisturbed in the dark in this drawer for 32 days.

So let’s take a look at the progress of our eight queens at Day 32!

This is what Queen #1 looked like the last time we saw her two weeks ago.

She had a small clutch of brood, mostly eggs and young larvae.

But AC Family, you guys will love what her brood pile looks like now!

Queen 1 Update

Woah!

Check out that awesome brood pile!

This shocked me the most!

You could see mature larvae all around, but even more exciting is that there are now three cocoons!

I was elated to discover this!

They all grow up so fast, don’t they?

So in those three cocoons are ant pupae developing into adult ants,

and from them, any day now, will emerge the queen’s very first worker ants—

the nanitics.

Queen #1 is so close to realizing the Big Queen Ant Dream of successfully founding an ant colony.

I imagine this queen ant is pretty hungry at this point,

as she hasn’t had a proper meal since she left her birth colony 32 days ago at nuptial flight,

but I’m sure she’s hopeful to see her young nearing adulthood now.

Some ant keepers choose to give their queens a bit of food at this founding stage,

but I don’t, because nature has given her all that she needs to survive,

and she’s also acquiring sustenance from her broken-down back muscle tissue that powered her wings at nuptial flight.

It’s this same broken-down muscle tissue that makes up the self-made ant soup—

or what I like to call “ant milk”—that she’s been feeding her young this whole time.

More about that later!

She makes sure to diligently clean the area around her young to ensure no fungal or bacterial growth occurs that can endanger them.

And she makes sure to periodically clean herself as well.

Amazing to note that ants clean themselves in the same way that cats do,

running their arms over their head and body parts, then through their mouthparts.

Her saliva actually has some incredible antimicrobial and antifungal properties.

Her attention to cleanliness is also quite evident in the water portion of her test tube, which still looks clear and clean.

From the looks of things, it does seem like Queen #1 has stopped laying eggs for now

and is conserving her remaining resources and efforts to raise this batch of nanitics.

Congrats, Queen #1!

I’m so proud of your progress!

You’re almost there!

Queen 2 Update

Alright, let’s bang through the rest of these queens so I can finally show you the ultra-rare footage I’ve been talking about.

Moving on, this is what Queen #2’s brood looked like two weeks ago—also a few eggs and newborn larvae.

And AC Family, this is what she looks like today: just beautiful!

She also has a couple of cocoons there.

I see ant eggs, some larvae at different stages, and even mature larvae that are just about ready to spin cocoons.

She’s also been such a good mom.

Congrats, Queen #2.

The brood pile of Queen #3 two weeks ago looked like this—again, young larvae and eggs.

And today—ah, so satisfying!

Cocoons, and a few mature larvae also nearing the cocoon stage.

Great job, Queen #3.

Now AC Family, what I saw in the test tube of Queen #4 was not as optimistic, but rather a bit concerning.

Queen 4 Update

This was her two weeks ago.

She had eggs and lots of young larvae.

But peeking into her test tube this week, I was surprised that she was a bit behind on the brood development.

I saw a bunch of young larvae, intermediate larvae, and one mature larva that was about ready to pupate.

My guess was she probably wasn’t able to produce as much ant milk for the young as the last three queens,

or perhaps she laid more eggs than the last three queens and therefore had more mouths to feed,

giving less food per larva,

or perhaps the young were just maturing slower for some reason.

But what I spotted next scared me!

A mite!

Oh no!

Now, I should note that this could be a friendly mite that eats garbage and waste and not a dangerous parasitic mite,

but I do know it definitely had to have come hitching a ride on the queen’s body,

because these test tubes are sterile when I place the queens inside and sealed tightly with a cotton swab.

Let’s hope this mite isn’t a dangerous one and even the reason for the tardy larval development.

Crossing our fingers, AC Family, and hoping this queen and her brood make it.

Now Queen #5 was just as perplexing.

Check her out!

Queen 5 Update

Two weeks ago, she was also caring for her little pile of larvae and eggs,

and today… hmm… not much change.

I see eggs and small larvae.

Uh oh!

This was not a promising sight either.

Although slow-developing brood could just mean that she simply has slow-growing babies,

it also could mean that this queen ant wasn’t fertilized, having failed to mate with males on her nuptial flight night.

If you’re confused by the fact that there are babies despite her not having mated,

I’ve mentioned in past videos that unfertilized queen ants can still actually give birth to young,

but these young grow up to become male ants.

I know, it’s weird.

In the ant world, due to ant genetics, eggs that aren’t fertilized grow up to become male ants.

And if that’s the case for Queen #5, sadly it means she will not be able to fulfill the Great Queen Ant Dream of founding a colony.

And no, she can’t mate with her own son to have babies,

as her one shot was at nuptial flight night 32 nights ago.

Let’s hope that’s not the case and Queen #5 pulls through.

OK, so I’m going to skip Queen #6 and leave her to the last,

because it was in her claustral chamber that I filmed the ultra-rare and awesome footage.

So we’ll get back to her in a sec.

Queen 7 Update

Queen #7 two weeks ago had such an impressive brood pile,

and now she cares for lots of giant larvae all ready to spin their cocoons,

as well as various other larvae at different stages.

Oh, look at her picking up that larva and placing it carefully tighter into the pile.

Queen #7, we wish you all the luck in the world!

And finally, Queen #8 also had a brood pile of larvae and eggs two weeks ago,

and today—

Queen 8 Update

Lots of mature larvae ready to pupate and larvae at various stages.

Keep up the great work, Queen #8.

Alright, AC Family, and now the moment we’ve all been waiting for—

or at least I’ve been waiting to show you.

The rare sight I caught on camera!

Queen #6 two weeks ago had lots of newborn larvae and eggs,

and this week, I don’t think I was prepared to actually see what I witnessed within her test tube!

Queen 6 Feeding

Behold Queen #6.

Her brood pile was now comprised of a cocoon—I see there—and lots of mature larvae.

But AC Family, check out what happened the moment I started recording Queen #6 and her brood.

It just so happened that we peeked on them at just the right time!

One of the larvae seemed to be moving and stretching, as if it was yearning for something.

See that?

And then, the queen noticed and moved closer to the larva,

and AC Family, that’s when I saw it!

The larva reached out for its mom, and the queen extended a tube-like organ from her mouthparts

to begin feeding the larva her self-made nutritious soup of ant milk,

made from her liquified back muscle tissues.

Isn’t that crazy, guys?!

You can actually see the queen’s mouthpart—like the nipple of a baby bottle—extending out to feed the suckling larva.

This was the very first time I had ever witnessed this in my entire life!

I couldn’t believe it!

It lasted only a few seconds, but I was left in awe at how beautiful the moment was.

The larva even continued to sort of lick and swallow the remaining bits of ant milk after the queen pulled away.

How cute!

And just when I thought it was over, the queen came back and continued to give the larva a second dose of ant milk!

Wow!

It’s like the queen decided to give it time to swallow before proceeding.

AC Family, what we’re witnessing here is extremely rare footage of the queen’s feeding process.

I’ve always read about it, and we ant keepers know it happens at this stage,

but actually seeing it with my own eyes was truly a gift,

and not something we ant keepers get to see every day—certainly not up close and in 4K UHD like this!

This feeding process is the ant equivalent of a human mother breastfeeding her baby.

It’s extra special because this is the only time of an entire queen ant’s life that she feeds her larvae like this,

because once these larvae mature into adult worker ants,

it’s the worker ants that will be the ones to, from then on, take over, care for, and feed the young

from collected food from the outside world.

And the queen would then do nothing else but focus on her job as egg-layer of the colony.

It’s why I knew that seeing this was truly awesome!

And just when I thought the feeding session was over,

she moved on to a nearby larva, coddled it with her antennae,

located its mouth, and proceeded to also feed it some of her ant milk.

It was at this moment that I realized just how beautiful the process of motherhood is.

I mean, consider this—

ants and humans couldn’t be any more different biologically speaking, right?

Yet queen ants, at least for this period of their lives,

are capable of producing actual food for their babies, just like human mothers can.

Of course, the mechanics may be different,

as human mothers produce breast milk from mammary glands,

and ant mothers produce “ant milk” from broken-down muscle tissue,

but the concept is still the same.

Mothers bearing children, and then feeding them food produced by their own bodies!

Maybe because I’m a guy, this is only blowing my mind now,

but I realized in this awesome moment just how miraculous and beautiful motherhood really was.

I also couldn’t help but wonder if this was what “ant love” looked like.

The way these queen mothers cared for and nursed their young so attentively

looked very much like an expression of love to me—

but in ant form.

What do you guys think?

Do you guys think ants feel love for their babies?

If that was the case, and these ants were capable of feeling the emotion we humans know as “love,”

it was pretty mind-blowing then,

that despite ants and humans being so different, our common denominator was still the same:

it was love.

I was pleased with what we saw today in this humble ant claustral chamber,

and my heart was so full and inspired.

All eight of these queen ants have been lucky to make it this far on their epic journey

to realizing their Great Queen Ant Dream of being the royal mothers of their own successful ant colonies.

I’m actually learning so much from this case study of raising multiple queens and their future colonies like this.

Being able to witness and document the little things that happen all the time in nature,

that we humans could otherwise never witness, is truly an invaluable opportunity.

I mean, can you imagine that normally in the wild,

these queens would be hidden and tucked away in the dark,

within the privacy of their claustral chambers in rotting wood cavities or in burrows in the ground?

But here we were witnessing them up close as they found their ant kingdoms step by step?

It’s why I just love ant keeping!

If any of you guys also want to try keeping ants with me,

it’s actually still anting season in the Northern Hemisphere,

and the final nuptial flights are wrapping up for the year,

so go out and look for those queen ants, guys.

For those in Australia, your nuptial flights start soon!

But if you don’t manage to find any queens at all, no worries!

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.

Outro

By the way, we ship out of the US.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank you guys for following the journey of these beloved queen ants of ours,

and cheering them on silently from wherever in the world you may be watching.

AC Family, I take none of you for granted.

It just really means a lot to me that you guys have given ants a chance,

subscribed to the channel to join our ever-growing AC Family,

and just allowed these little miracles of life we call ants into your hearts.

It’s pretty cool to see so many people looking at ants from a different lens—both literally and figuratively.

They’re more than just the pests most people see them as.

They’re actually very much like little versions of us.

As for me, I’m super excited for these queens to finally have their very first workers,

which for many of them should be any day now,

bringing them one step closer to realizing their ultimate dream.

And when they do, you can be sure I’ll be filming them to record every milestone along the way.

I’ll keep you guys all updated on their progress.

I placed the queens back into the dark to continue doing what nature designed them to do, in peace.

Thank you all 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 the queen ants in their claustral chambers with their new brood.

Go check them out!

And now it’s time for the AC Question of the Week.

Last week, we asked:

What type of flies belong to the genus Apocephalus?

Congratulations to Xoxoxo Xoxoxo who answered:

Ant decapitating flies.

Congratulations, Xo!

You just won a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from our shop!

In this week’s AC Question of the Week, we ask:

What is ant milk made of?

Leave your answer in the comments section,

and you could also win a free Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook from our shop!

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as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.

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It’s ant love forever!