Have you ever wondered what it looks like
when a queen fire ant lays an egg? I know, perhaps not the first thing you think
about in the morning, but believe me, it’s super cool and you’ll be seeing just that
today! Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Phoenix Empire,
my young and growing pet fire ant colony in a test tube, that is on the cusp of a massive
population explosion! The Queen, whom we’ve named on this channel
the Ember Empress, blankets herself in piles of her own brood, as she continues to lay
eggs non-stop, quietly amassing a powerful fire ant army. But for weeks, I’ve been dying to catch
the Ember Empress in the actual act of laying an egg, but haven’t been lucky. That was until this week. Welcome to the AntsCanada ant channel! Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! Now in all my years of ant keeping, I’ve
only been able to catch a queen ant laying an egg twice, but never have I been able to
capture and witness the event properly magnified in 4K video before. Now guys, I didn’t know it yet, but the
egg-laying process for fire ant queens is truly unique and epic! Do keep on watching until the end to see what
I mean! From the moment I first received this fledgling
fire ant colony, catching the intimate moment of the queen laying an egg was one of my top
goals, especially because a lot of you AC Family commented saying you wanted to see
the Ember Empress lay an egg! Now you would think with a brood pile that
grows bigger and bigger every day, this would be easy to film. Well, not so much, I’ve found. There were a few challenges. First, no matter how much I waited the queen
would always wait for me to leave and all vibrations gone, before she would lay an egg. Second, timing was of the essence. You see the queen has egg-laying bouts, days
when she’s egg laying and days when she’s off. Third, she hates lights and sadly I needed
to light the nest in order to film her egg-laying. Finally, she had to be at just the right angle,
and her constantly moving army of workers and hefty brood had to remain out of the way
for me to properly catch the moment. This in particular drove me insane, which
you’ll be seeing in a bit. But this week, it seemed the stars were aligned,
AC Family. We were bound to witness something truly magical! It was a typical day in the City of Ashes,
kingdom of the Phoenix Empire. Several workers were busy feasting on a dead
mealworm in the Fireforest, while others gathered water and collected liquid sugar. All these yummy goods were delivered to the
repletes and aquapletes, the Empire’s living food and water caches, who then went on to
feed the growing brood and our Royal Highness, the Ember Empress. It was promising to see that they were feeding
the queen so well, as she is the most important member of the colony to keep nourished. The Ember Empress’ only job is to produce
those eggs! She does nothing else. Within her fat gaster lies a special organ
that stores all the sperm she collected during her single mating flight a couple months ago,
and keeps it viable for years and years, like a cryogenic chamber within her, so she can
continue to lay fertilized eggs for the rest of her life. The colony’s true first generation of workers,
known as the nanitics, are all reaching the end of their lives and dying out now. I counted 7 dead nanitics in the colony’s
graveyard, but judging from that massive brood pile, tonnes of fire ants are on the way,
and this new generation is bigger and stronger than the last. Take a look at this shot, guys! The older fire ants are smaller and hang out
together, cleaning themselves after a hunting spree outside, while the newer, younger fire
ant generation seen to the right, who simply ate better food growing up, are larger. In fact, I think I even saw a couple majors
with larger than normal heads in the colony now! Cool right?! There’s no denying the Phoenix Empire is
prolific and quickly growing in population, but with the growing number of visual obstructions,
and more opportunities for the Ember Empress to be concealed, I felt this meant my dreams
of filming the queen laying an egg were becoming less and less probable. AC Family, that was until I saw this. The Ember Empress had buried her head like
an ostrich into a dark spot of the cotton. Well, that’s a great way to feel like you’re
in the dark! Hehe! But it was in that moment, I noticed the very
tip of her gaster. At first I admired the cool pointed shape
of it. But then, I began to notice that the point
began to grow. It was the Ember Empress’ stinger! How intriguing! I always wondered if fire ant queens had a
stinger, as I’ve never been stung by one before, but I now had my answer! But as the stinger appeared to be coming out
more and more, mixed with some weird contractions towards the tip of her gaster, my heart jumped
into my throat! Oh my gosh! Is she laying an egg? I wasn’t sure as I had no idea what signs
to look for. Suddenly, she began to flex at her pedicle
(petiole) bringing her gaster inward in a sort of fetal position, her sharp stinger
out in full extension. Oh my gosh, she’s totally laying an egg,
I said to myself! For a few moments I watched totally holding
my breath, as she stood still. Was she actually going to lay an egg? And it was in that moment that a worker had
dropped a larva right in the worst place ever! The queen flexed her gaster once more, stinger
stretched out and wobbling now as if it was accommodating something coming through, and
when I was able to turn the test tube just a little in order to move the larva out of
the way, a worker had gone in and plucked the newly laid egg to carry to the egg pile! Noooo! I totally missed it! The Ember Empress’ stinger was now retracted
back into her gaster and I felt as though I had missed spotting a unicorn! That darned larva! Ugh! Anyway, the cool thing was I now knew what
signs to look out for! Fire ant queens on the verge of laying an
egg extend out their stingers and have visible contractions! I also knew today was an egg-laying day! Awesome! The question now was: when was she going to
lay next? The Ember Empress had stuck her head into
another dark spot, and I noticed that a worker was cleaning her gaster, and I had to look
twice. When the worker had moved out of the way I
spotted the queen’s stinger once again visible and coming out! No way! Could she be laying an egg again? Workers were bustling all around her. No! If she was about to lay an egg again, this
was such a bad angle. Plus, these workers would totally be blocking
her again for sure! The stinger began to poke out more and more
coupled with the gaster contractions. The ants were such an obstruction! How I wished I were Ant-man at that moment
so I could command the ants to get out of the flippin’ way already! But AC Family, within the crazy confusion
of legs, brood, and bodies, watch what I saw! Booyah! She laid an egg. Did you guys see it? It was a little obscured, but we saw it! And it hadn’t even been a few seconds, before
a trusty worker came along, picked it up, and carried it to the official egg pile! How amazing! That was the very first time I’d ever seen
a fire ant queen lay an egg! The great thing I learned was that she laid
this egg just ten minutes after she laid the first egg! Did this mean that in ten minutes, our Ember
Empress would lay another? I wanted to try my luck and get a better shot
if so! Ten minutes later, the queen lay still, her
head once again in the dark. I watched the tip of her gaster religiously
for any signs of a stinger or contractions. There was nothing. For a very long time, I just sat there waiting
and watching the Ember Empress. It was amazing to think that she was the seed
that would birth an enormous colony of millions of ants over the many years of her life. Generations upon generations of fire ants,
will all have been born from her. It amazed me to think that my previous fire
ant colony, named the Fire Nation, who grew large enough to consume whole animals, once
started off as a humble and growing colony in a test tube like this. Mother Nature is truly miraculous and beautiful. An hour went by with no signs of a stinger,
but just as I was about to pack up and conclude that her egg-laying was done for the night,
I saw what looked like some contractions and the point of a stinger! OMG! She was laying again! She got up and flexed at her pedicle. It was such a bad angle though and I knew
we’d miss the egg-laying sight if I didn’t do something, so I gently rotated the test
tube, and that was when the Ember Empress did something awesome! She pushed the brood that was blocking the
shot away. She was allowing us to see this time. Ants were running all around and I feared
they’d get in the way again, but AC Family, check out what I saw. And just like that an egg was laid, and was
the newest member added to the Phoenix Empire’s growing family. Wasn’t that amazing?! I was happy that we could finally catch it,
and happy that all of you guys could see it, too. The Ember Empress didn’t lay another egg,
for the next hour so I went to bed. But, I felt grateful to have witnessed something
that happens billions of times every day, underground within the sacred darkness of
ant nests all over the world. I love that you guys had the chance to witness
with me how awesome the miracle of fire ant birth is, something we don’t get to see
every day. It’s why I love ant keeping so much. The world may see these little insects as
pests and a terrible nuisance, and admittedly they certainly can be. But watching a colony grow within an ant setup
has given me an entirely new perspective on them. They’re just trying to live out their lives
and survive like the rest of us on the planet. It’s not their fault they end up at your
picnics, build ant hills in your yard, and sting you when you trample on their turf. They’re just trying to live out their lives
and do their thing, conquering and thriving, in a world of giants, one egg at a time. And as this fire ant colony the Phoenix Empire
does become that conquering and thriving colony, you can count on me to film them every step
of the way. Thank you for watching, and supporting the
ants. It’s ant love forever! AC Family, wasn’t that cool? So much is in store ahead for this ant colony
and others in the Ant Room, so if you haven’t yet, SMASH that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL
ICON now and hit ALL so you get notified at every upload, because I believe notifications
seem to be broken but the Youtube support team is on it. Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button
every single time including now. It would really mean a lot to me. Thank you, guys! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would like an update on the Golden Empire, my yellow crazy ant
colony that is actually recovering from vampiric mites. Many of you have been asking about them! Just a quick announcement: if you’ve wanted
to get into ant keeping, now’s the time! Just use the coupon code “antloveforever”
to get 10% off all AC ant farms and equipment at AntsCanada.com! Promo ends March 1st so get your ant keeping
gear at AntsCanada.com now. Anting season and nuptial flights start in
the Northern Hemisphere this month! And now it’s time for the AC Question of
the Week. Last week, we asked: Name one thing you love about
the Phoenix Empire’s way of life. Congratulations to Owen Clark who answered: I love how each ant has their own special
job that is important to the whole colony. Congratulations Owen, you just won a free
Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop! In this week’s AC Question of the Week we
ask: What new thing did we discover about
fire ant queens when laying eggs? Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could also win a free e-book 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!
