A mechanic could be that the player would put some food inside of them, and then after some time they would deposit the food back into your food stores, but you would gain an extra 20% food of what you originally put in them. Or maybe you put 200 food in them, and you get food back at a rate of 20% up to 400, but over time (these are just numbers, I think that if the value was double of what the player originally put in them, it would be op). This value could go up depending on their level.
These ants would probably have to be tiles themselves, I'm guessing, or they could be living ants, but nonetheless, workers would bring food grains from to the food store to the honey pots or the tile they are connected to, and the honey pots would inflate up. Then after a time period, they would give out a food substance to collect by workers and be brought back to the food store at a certain rate until what was originally put in them was paid back, and they would give off additional resources as profit. Think of it like processing raw resources to make them more valuable.
If honeypots had a valuable mechanic like this, I can see them being a staple in every gene-thief colony, and quite useful too. As I mentioned, this would add more complexity to the 'economies' of gene thief colonies, and an addition like this could be very good for eventual multiplayer.
