diff --git a/crates/colony/src/main.rs b/crates/colony/src/main.rs
index 38ea7ec..ad34f84 100644
--- a/crates/colony/src/main.rs
+++ b/crates/colony/src/main.rs
@@ -17,19 +17,21 @@ async fn main() {
         .await
         .expect("Failed to connect to database");
 
+    eprintln!("colony: connected to {}", db_url);
+
     // Enable WAL mode
     sqlx::query("PRAGMA journal_mode=WAL")
         .execute(&pool)
         .await
         .unwrap();
 
-    // Run migrations using sqlx's proper migration system
+    // Run embedded migrations
     sqlx::migrate!("./migrations")
         .run(&pool)
         .await
         .expect("Failed to run migrations");
 
-    println!("Colony running on port {}", port);
+    eprintln!("colony: migrations done, starting on port {}", port);
 
     let app = Router::new()
         .route("/api/health", get(routes::health))
diff --git a/infra/colony/Dockerfile b/infra/colony/Dockerfile
index 8a9ee9b..7142b44 100644
--- a/infra/colony/Dockerfile
+++ b/infra/colony/Dockerfile
@@ -11,15 +11,16 @@ FROM rust:1.86-slim AS backend
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y pkg-config libssl-dev && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Cache dependency build: copy manifests first, create stub sources, build deps
+# Cache dependency build: copy manifests + migrations, create stub sources
 COPY Cargo.toml Cargo.lock ./
 COPY crates/colony-types/Cargo.toml crates/colony-types/Cargo.toml
 COPY crates/colony/Cargo.toml crates/colony/Cargo.toml
+COPY crates/colony/migrations crates/colony/migrations
 RUN mkdir -p crates/colony-types/src crates/colony/src \
     && echo "fn main() {}" > crates/colony/src/main.rs \
     && echo "" > crates/colony-types/src/lib.rs \
     && cargo build --release -p colony 2>/dev/null || true \
-    && rm -rf crates/
+    && rm crates/colony/src/main.rs crates/colony-types/src/lib.rs
 
 # Now copy real source and build (deps already cached)
 COPY crates/ crates/