Free First-Year Ant-Keeping Checklist | Printable PDF for Beginners
Starting your first ant colony? This free checklist puts everything a beginner needs for the first twelve months onto four printable pages. Print it, keep it by the nest and tick it off as your colony grows.
No sign-up, no basket, no email address. Click and it is yours.
What Is Inside the Checklist
• Month-by-month timeline: from catching or buying your queen, through founding and first workers, to moving day and the first winter rest.
• Care at a glance: temperature, humidity, test tube size, water, food and when to move, all in one table.
• Watering done right: the simple drop method that stops a nest drying out or flooding.
• Feeding quick card: protein jelly and organic honey, how much, how often, and what never to use.
• The five mistakes that lose colonies: and how to avoid every one of them.
Who It Is For
The checklist is written around Lasius niger, the black garden ant, which is the species we recommend to almost every beginner. It works just as well for Messor barbarus harvester ants, and for anyone who has just caught a queen after a flying ant day.
Parents, teachers and gift buyers will find it the quickest way to know exactly what to expect, month by month.
Written by Keepers With 30 Years of Experience
Best Ants UK has been keeping and supplying ants since 1997. Everything in the checklist comes from three decades of raising colonies and answering thousands of questions from new keepers. It is the same honest advice we give our own customers, with no shortcuts.
Read the Full Guides
The checklist is the short version. For the full detail, every stage has its own step-by-step guide:
Ready to Start Your Colony?
If you would rather skip the slow founding stage, our beginner kits arrive with a live queen and workers, ready to grow. Lucas is our complete Lasius niger starter kit and Angie is our Messor barbarus harvester kit. Both come with a built-in digital humidity and temperature meter, and every live colony is covered by our live arrival guarantee.
FAQs
Is the checklist really free?
Yes. It is a free PDF download with no sign-up, no email and nothing to buy.
Can I print the checklist?
Yes. It is A4 and designed to be printed and kept next to your colony for the whole first year.
Which ant species is the checklist for?
It is written around Lasius niger, the best UK beginner species. The core advice also applies to Messor barbarus and most other beginner ants.
What if I have not got a queen yet?
Start with our guide to finding and catching a queen ant in the UK, or choose one of our ant farm kits with live ants.
