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ColonyLog, free with an account

ColonyLog. Your ant colony's story.

ColonyLog is a keeper's notebook in your browser. Her first eggs, each feeding, the day the first workers walk out, every move to a bigger nest, and the photos along the way, all on one dated page per colony.

Open ColonyLog Add a queen you caught

Free account: up to 5 colonies, unlimited photos, 5 videos per colony.

Example colony, illustration only

Closet queen

Camponotus pennsylvanicus

First workersScout

Post an update

  1. Day 41Workers: 3Three first workers out. They are so small.
  2. Day 23Fed: SugarFirst feeding. Tiny drop of sugar water on foil.
  3. Day 9EggsA small egg pile against the cotton. Left her alone.
A drawing of how a colony page lays out. Names and entries are made up.

The status follows what you log.

Tap Eggs, Larvae, Pupae, or log a worker count, and the colony steps forward along its path. It only moves forward, never back. Hibernating, Lost and Released are yours to set by hand.

  1. 01Founding
  2. 02First eggs
  3. 03Larvae
  4. 04Pupae
  5. 05First workers
  6. 06Growing
  7. 07Established

Log care in a tap, standing at the shelf.

Quick logs are chips. Tap one and it's saved with the date. Add a caption and up to 10 photos or videos to the same update when there's something worth showing. Videos run up to 2:00.

Go 10 days without a Fed log and the colony card shows a quiet amber note on your list. That's it: no emails, no pings.

  • Fed

    Pick sugar or protein. One tap, dated.

  • Water / tube changed

    Know when the tube was last swapped.

  • Eggs

    Moves the status to First eggs.

  • Larvae

    Moves the status to Larvae.

  • Pupae

    Moves the status to Pupae.

  • Workers

    A stepper for the count you made. Feeds the chart.

  • Moved

    Pick the registered nest she moved into.

  • Note

    Anything else, in your own words.

Example timeline, invented for this page

Three months, read top to bottom.

  1. Day 1Founding

    Caught after a July evening flight. Into a test tube, cotton damp, box in the closet.

  2. Day 9Eggsphoto

    A small egg pile against the cotton. Left her alone.

  3. Day 23Fed: Sugar

    First feeding. Tiny drop of sugar water on foil.

  4. Day 41Workers: 3photo

    Three first workers out. They are so small.

  5. Day 64Water / tube changed

    Tube was getting dry at the back. Linked a fresh one.

  6. Day 88Moved: Scout

    Walked over into the Scout on their own over two days.

Log worker counts as you make them and the colony page draws a chart from your numbers. ColonyLog doesn't count ants for you; you count, it remembers.

Nests that know their colony

Scan the label. The nest joins your notebook.

  1. 1Each American Ant nest ships with a label: a QR code and an 8-character nest code, written like XXXX-XXXX.
  2. 2Scan it with your phone camera, or type the code into ColonyLog. Sign in and the nest is registered to you. Give it a nickname like Kitchen Founder.
  3. 3Put a colony in it, or log Moved on a colony later. The nest page shows who is living there now and who lived there before.

A code can only be registered once. If someone already has it, you'll see that, with a way to tell us it's yours. Keeping ants in a test tube or someone else's nest? Housing can be set to Test tube or Something else, so ColonyLog works without one of ours.

Same steps as the nests.

Housing choices match how colonies actually grow here: from the tube she founded in, into a Scout, then onward as you Link rooms.

Test tubeScoutFounderHomesteadFour CornersSomething else

See the nests

Free account

  • ColoniesUp to 5
  • Registered nestsNo limit
  • PhotosNo limit
  • Videos per colony5

Works in any modern browser, phone or desktop.

Day one is the page you'll want later.

Just caught a queen? Start her log tonight, before the first eggs.

Open ColonyLog Flight season: Feeling Nuptial
LIVERound and Round