Cup kit tips

[drex]

Is it surrounded by comb? I heard that the reason many people fail with the cages is that the queen doesn't like laying in a box with a void around it.

sandwiched between 2 frames of BIAS

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Is it surrounded by comb? I heard that the reason many people fail with the cages is that the queen doesn't like laying in a box with a void around it.

I've heard that too - my original cupkit has some hardboard around it which is smeared with wax so it's quite beezy to smell (new word for me). I've used it a few times only and it's been OK. I've left it in for a day or two before putting the queen in. I don't bother with it now although I graft into the plastic cups which I leave in for a day or two before grafting. 00 paint brush is quick and easy and some poundland glasses that are too strong for me.

 

[drex]

I have let the cupkit into a frame of relatively newly drawn comb, so it is surrounded by comb, and as said I place in between frames of brood. I open up the hive that it is conditioning in tomorrow, and will put the queen in this time, and cross my fingers.

 

[B+.]

I've heard that too - my original cupkit has some hardboard around it which is smeared with wax so it's quite beezy to smell (new word for me). I've used it a few times only and it's been OK. I've left it in for a day or two before putting the queen in. I don't bother with it now although I graft into the plastic cups which I leave in for a day or two before grafting. 00 paint brush is quick and easy and some poundland glasses that are too strong for me.

After all of this discussion, I decided to give them another try. I popped a young queen in one of my 110 cell cages just to see how it goes. I'll release her tomorrow morning. She's a lovely queen so I'd quite like to get some daughters from her as drone mothers for next year.
I think most people just graft straight into the cells.

 

[B+.]

I have let the cupkit into a frame of relatively newly drawn comb, so it is surrounded by comb, and as said I place in between frames of brood. I open up the hive that it is conditioning in tomorrow, and will put the queen in this time, and cross my fingers.

Thats exactly what you're supposed to do (according to everything I've heard) so it should go well
gl

 

[mbc]

I think most people just graft straight into the cells.

Yup.

 

[B+.]

Yup.

I'll stick with grafting from now on.
After all the discussion about Nicot cages I tried again with one of mine. I had the queen in the cage for 24hrs (which is actually 12 hours longer than they recommend) and she didn't lay a single egg. This is a queen in her first year of assessment and one which has filled 2 Langstroth deeps with brood. Within seconds of release she was back on the comb searching for somewhere to lay.
As far as I am concerned, the cages are a waste of my time.

 

[For want of a better word]

I'll stick with grafting from now on.
After all the discussion about Nicot cages I tried again with one of mine. I had the queen in the cage for 24hrs (which is actually 12 hours longer than they recommend) and she didn't lay a single egg. This is a queen in her first year of assessment and one which has filled 2 Langstroth deeps with brood. Within seconds of release she was back on the comb searching for somewhere to lay.
As far as I am concerned, the cages are a waste of my time.

I have had mixed success too.. but when it works... fantastic!

This season IF the Nicot method is not successful I am going to use the Hopkins method.

Going for quality not quantity!

Yeghes da

 

[B+.]

I am going to use the Hopkins method.
a

I wish you luck.
My view is that this method wastes an awful lot of valuable breeding material (a bit like the cut comb method where you lose every alternate cell on one side of the comb and everything on the reverse). If you think about how the queen lays her eggs, adjacent cells are roughly the same age and the bees will draw all of these out in an emergency. Unfortunately, they are often joined together by the cell wall and you can't separate the cells without losing one of them.
Its worth a try though, even if just for the experience. Personally, I would graft some too, just to be on the safe side.

 

[peteinwilts]

Hi Guys

I have done something wrong, but am in two minds deciding what.

I made 5 full double brood hives queenless by performing artificial swarms.

I popped the cupkit into a my chosen egg donor. After three days, I removed HM, and there were lots of day 1 and day 2 eggs.

I gave each of the queenless hives (after scouring for the beginnings of QC's) 6 eggs each (5 in one because I have lost a cup holder!)

left them for 12 days. Out of the 29 possibility's, only one had one QC. The other hives had either a stonking QC, or a small number of small ones.

I can see two possibility's of what I did wrong

1) By performing the Q- colonys by AS, I reduced the adult worker bee population, and (or) together with the cool weather over the last week, prevented royalactin to be produced in an adequate amounts?

2) the eggs were too young for use and should have waited another day, and the eggs were simply hoovered up\moved up by over tidy workers

If the latter, only 2 of the 5 hives produced a QC that I am happy about. the remaining QC's are squat.
I am going to leave the larger QC hives alone, but the smaller QC hives will be recombined with their former queens.

I am going to kick the process off again with different hives. It would be good to know what I did wrong before I make a similar mistake.

thoughts?
Cheers
Pete

 

[drex]

Success. Just released queen after two days. Every cell has been laid up. Looks like she layed on her first day.
Will transfer larvae on Sunday. Trying Ben Harden method. Any comments?

 

[peteinwilts]

Success. Just released queen after two days. Every cell has been laid up. Looks like she layed on her first day.
Will transfer larvae on Sunday. Trying Ben Harden method. Any comments?

seems an interesting and less stressful way of doing it.

It seems a more natural way of doing it. However, won't the queen want to bog off as the QC's are being raised? (which is also the natural way)

 

[Luka22]

Success. Just released queen after two days. Every cell has been laid up. Looks like she layed on her first day.
Will transfer larvae on Sunday. Trying Ben Harden method. Any comments?

Hi, I was wondering how you got on with the Ben Harden method. I have just placed my queen into the Nicot and was thinking about trying that method. I was also wondering, when you release the queen, do you remove the queen excluder from the Nicot or do you leave it on?

If I understood right then you leave the queen in for about 24h before you check for eggs. If she laid the eggs, then I suppose you remove her, if not then she will need to stay longer. Am I right that you still leave the Nicot for another up to 3 days in the Hive, after the Queen is released till you see some Royal Jelly? I am just asking because last year the Nicot was full of eggs, I removed the Queen and when I checked next time the eggs were all removed. So I was not sure if I should have just moved the eggs straight to the Cell Builder Bar instead to avoid this happening again.