Chinese 'Cupkit' kit.

[Little John]

There are now quite a few Ebay sellers flogging 'Cupkit-style' kit - I'm talking about the cup holders and cages, NOT the laying matrix - for silly money.

They are extremely good value for money - only two comments to make about this stuff:
The first being that the components are a looser fit than genuine Nicotplas products - but a dab of wax should remedy that.

Secondly, the individual parts are NOT interchangeable with the genuine Nicotplas parts - so if you buy from China, keep the systems separate else you'll be tearing your hair out.
The only part which IS interchangeable - and arguably it's the only part which really matters - is the brown cell cup itself.

LJ






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[For want of a better word]

There are now quite a few Ebay sellers flogging 'Cupkit-style' kit - I'm talking about the cup holders and cages, NOT the laying matrix - for silly money.

They are extremely good value for money - only two comments to make about this stuff:
The first being that the components are a looser fit than genuine Nicotplas products - but a dab of wax should remedy that.

Secondly, the individual parts are NOT interchangeable with the genuine Nicotplas parts - so if you buy from China, keep the systems separate else you'll be tearing your hair out.
The only part which IS interchangeable - and arguably it's the only part which really matters - is the brown cell cup itself.

LJ


The only part which IS interchangeable - and arguably it's the only part which really matters - is the brown cell cup itself...NO NO NO they are crap!



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I have binned all of the Chinese copy stuff... queens are difficult enough to get!

Yeghes da

 

[Poly Hive]

It is very disheartening when the queens ignore the plugs and lay up the non plug cells. I find it silly to be grafting out of a cell kit and so I ignore them and simply graft. At least I know there is a grub in every cup I give to the starter box..

PH

 

[Little John]

The only part which IS interchangeable - and arguably it's the only part which really matters - is the brown cell cup itself...NO NO NO they are crap!

I have binned all of the Chinese copy stuff... queens are difficult enough to get!

Yeghes da

Eh ? The brown cell cups are made by Nicotplastics of France, not the Chinese. The Chinese cups are luminous green, and don't fit anything.

BTW - the problem many people have with the Cupkit laying matrix is down to it's weird cell size. Nicot have chosen 5.6mm as the cell size, which is neither the size of worker nor drone cells - hence the queen become indecisive, and moves on without laying. That's often why results are so unpredictable.
One solution is to reduce the matrix cell size to 5.0mm, especially if you're running natural cell size combs.

LJ