Cupkit

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Drone Bee
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
1,876
Reaction score
678
Location
Merseyside
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
12
I cant get my Queens to lay in the Cupkit Cage. I tried it 3 years running now, with 3 different Queens. None of them have laid in it.
I put the frame with the cage attached in the hive for 3 days,then put the Queen in then examine at 24hr intervals to see if there are any eggs. There never has been. Any idea what I could be doing wrong?
 
Try making it a little dirty with honey and wax.
 
Three days might be to long, 24hrs should be long enough. Even then workers will start to fill the cupkit cells with honey, then the queen wont lay an egg in the cell if it has honey in them...
 
I've had great success with the cup kit system, so if you want to give me a call on 07973385957 we can discuss further.
 
Three days might be to long, 24hrs should be long enough. Even then workers will start to fill the cupkit cells with honey, then the queen wont lay an egg in the cell if it has honey in them...

Nicot system
placed in hive 4 days before queen was to be introduced
foundation either side drawn out and starting to fill with nectar
cells in Nicot not only filled but had cappings beginning!
opened, capping scraped off.. queen placed in Nicot.
24 hours later 50 cells cleaned out and each with an egg!
queen evicted.. covers replaced...
returned to hive 3 days and 18 hours later 50 cups put in finishing hive... and waiting!

You need a really strong colony.. brood + 1/2 at least.. with lots and lots of young and hatching brood.. for both the queen hive and rearing q- hive
plus put Nicot between two brood frames.

with any luck 20% will go on to bring on new colonies

IMOVLE... of course.. works for me!
 
Trying another method that will work for you :D...grafting, Miller or its variants, Demaree etc?

I try grafting every year also.
In 3 years only had one graft accepted!. So about 1 in 100 success.
 
When you introduce the cells into Apideas or nucs, do you use the protectors (similar to hair rollers)?
 
I had great success using the cupkit this year. This what I have done,
insert for 24 hours,let the bees do the cleaning and make it smell nice.

Then place the queen inside and return to same position, check for eggs in 12 hours, if no eggs present check again at 18 hours then repeat at 24hrs. Any longer and you will find more than 1 egg per cell. I always release after 24hrs to minimise stress to the queen.

Never failed to lay !!
 
Never failed to lay !!


That's what everyone says, but I failed. It's supposed to be foolproof. I cant see anything to go wrong. I put it in the middle of the brood nest so there is young brood either side of it. Left the queen in for 2 days and then gave up. Last year, I left the queen in for 3 days, but this upset the colony, so I didnt leave this one in that long this time. Might be a bit late now for another go this year, so I'll try again next spring. I'll also try grafting again.
 

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