Build Your Own Ant Farm
Ant farms in my area toy stores cost $20-30 each. I just don't have the desire to spend that much money on ants. Since shipment of ant queens is illegal, the purchased worker-only ant colony will eventually die out and you will have to purchase more worker ants that will also only live a few months. It is much cheaper and easy to create your own ant farm.
To make you own ant farm, you will need one clear container with lid (small air holes punched in lid) and one smaller container with lid that will fit inside of the first. The purpose is to prevent the ants from building tunnels near the center of the container where you will not be able to see them. Set the smaller one inside of the larger clear container and center it. You may need to use a dot of craft glue to hold it in place. Fill the space with soil and tap to help settle it. Moisten soil slightly, add ants. Sometimes you will be able to find the purchased ant farms in thrift stores and I have even seen a few smaller farms in the "for a dollar" chain stores. The smaller farms I saw were connectable with tubing.
The recommended ants in the purchased ant colonies (if you supply your own after the first batch dies) are the larger black ants found in mounds. These can't escape through the air holes in the lid. If you can control the size of the holes you make in your container lid, you can also use the smaller varieties that are more readily found in some areas. To keep your colony living, you must have a queen and workers. The workers are the ones you see scurying about and are easy to obtain. To aquire a queen, you will have to dig with a small hand trowel deep into the ant's colony. Place on a large white sheet of paper to make them more visible and gently break apart the colony. The queen will be much larger than the others. Gently capture her and as many workers as you can. Sometimes the queen can be found in a tunnel under a large flat rock. Just flip the rock and take a peek and look quickly before she makes her getaway. Place in your ant farm and put on the lid.
To feed your ants, dip a Q-tip in honey and smear a tiny bit on the side of your container. Drop a small crumb of cookie or bread in from time to time. The amounts of food needed are dependant upon the size of your colony. You won't need a lot of food to feed your ants! To water, sprinkle a tiny amount of water in the farm from time to time to keep the soil moist.
Ants do not like light, so to ensure that your colony burrows close to the glass, you can tape a piece of black construction paper over your container or just set a paperbag over it.
Watch the ants communicating by tapping their antennae together, the different stages of ant development, the making of tunnels, cleaning themselves and each other, etc. You can remove and then later re-add several ants, add ants from a different colony, add a spider or bug, etc. to observe what happens. You can study the parts of an ant and make a diagram labeling each. Or, model an ant form in clay and label with flagged pins. There are many books available on ants to enjoy as well. If you really develop an interest, there are much nicer ant farms you can build. Find out why the Bible says "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.." Prov:6:6
Here are a few websites to get you started:
Two live ant cams http://www.antcam.com
Myrmecology (study of ants) http://www.myrmecology.org
The Ant Farm http://home.apu.edu/~philpi/index2.html