Some websites say Lasius flavus are polygynous, so beginners put ten or twenty queens in one nest and lose nearly all of them. The claim is half true. We put 250 freshly mated queens together for 30 days with unlimited food, and 41 were killed by other queens. Here is what really happens, why the first workers decide which queen survives, and why multi-queen flavus works in a meadow but never in a formicarium. Plus exactly how many queens you should actually start with.
