Nicot Cup Kit

[Swift Nick]

I am going to try queen rearing with Nicot Cup Kit, the instructions I have are in French, so no use to me.
I have screwed the plastic Nicot box to a new blood frame, I am going to put the frame in the hive for a week, for the bees to get used to, before putting the queen in, should I add some honey to the cups to encourage the bees to clean? If so how much, a drop in each one with a cocktail stick?

 

[B+.]

I am going to try queen rearing with Nicot Cup Kit, the instructions I have are in French, so no use to me.
I have screwed the plastic Nicot box to a new blood frame, I am going to put the frame in the hive for a week, for the bees to get used to, before putting the queen in, should I add some honey to the cups to encourage the bees to clean? If so how much, a drop in each one with a cocktail stick?

I think they recommend spraying it with a little 1:1 syrup but you don't want to encourage them the fill the cups with honey.
One of the problems you may have is that it is an unnatural place for the queen to lay eggs i.e. not surrounded by comb containing more eggs...so, anything you can do to approximate nature would be a good thing
Some people seem to be able to get them to work but I never did. Good Luck

 

[madasafish]

You only need to leave it in the hive for 1-2 days.before using.
I dribble runny honey from a teaspoon into the cups... always have some left over- no need for accuracy and I always miss some.
Place in centre of brood nest.
Add queen after 1-2 days.
Check of eggs in 24 hours. If none, leave another 24 and check again.
Release Q by removing plastic button and store it safely. (I gaffer tape to hive.)

Then after 3 days , young larvae remove cells using holder place on holders in bars and into starter colony.

I use it 3- 4 times a year .. Works well never had a total failure with it..If you have difficulty seeing eggs/larvae use a magnifying glass and head torch..

Obviously you need some kind of flow on and queen laying in hive before you start. ...


I end up using 10-20 larvae from a choice of 50-60...
Good luck.

 

[Swift Nick]

You only need to leave it in the hive for 1-2 days.before using.
I dribble runny honey from a teaspoon into the cups... always have some left over- no need for accuracy and I always miss some.
Place in centre of brood nest.
Add queen after 1-2 days.
Check of eggs in 24 hours. If none, leave another 24 and check again.
Release Q by removing plastic button and store it safely. (I gaffer tape to hive.)

Then after 3 days , young larvae remove cells using holder place on holders in bars and into starter colony.

I use it 3- 4 times a year .. Works well never had a total failure with it..If you have difficulty seeing eggs/larvae use a magnifying glass and head torch..

Obviously you need some kind of flow on and queen laying in hive before you start. ...


I end up using 10-20 larvae from a choice of 50-60...
Good luck.

Thanks, those instructions are a great help.
We have a good flow on here from blackberry, this particular queen is laying really well, so it should work.
I only want about 10 larvae, but I presume I put all 110 of the cell cups into the Nicot cassette, is that right?

 

[madasafish]

Thanks, those instructions are a great help.
We have a good flow on here from blackberry, this particular queen is laying really well, so it should work.
I only want about 10 larvae, but I presume I put all 110 of the cell cups into the Nicot cassette, is that right?

Yes..
After use, dump into a soda crystals/water mix to clean off propolis/old eggs etc.. I re-use cups...being mean seems to work ok. I rely on bees to remove rubbish in cells.

 

[B+.]

I only want about 10 larvae, but I presume I put all 110 of the cell cups into the Nicot cassette, is that right?

Yes. If you leave any cell cups out, they may fill the position in the grid with wax.
You could mask them off with masking tape but you risk making such an artificial laying pattern that the bees will just remove the eggs

 

[Swift Nick]

Thanks both, I put all the cups in and trickled over a spoonful of honey. This is my first go at queen rearing, except by default during splits and swarm prevention.
The queen I am using for eggs is one of last years and has already provided 2 good tempered, good laying daughters from splits, so I am hoping to queen 4 nucs for overwintering with this go with the Nicot.
I have made a dual entrance floor, Cloake board and incubator, so it will be good to give it a go.

 

[B+.]

My advice would be to keep everything as simple as possible with your early attempts. Everything that you introduce is something that could, potentially, go wrong.

 

[For want of a better word]

best advice is to pick out and put in finisher at least 30 of the cell cups that have larvae in with a good pool of royal jelly.
Better results seem to be by using a very strong ( queen right under excluder) colony and place finisher frames between emerging brood and pollen stores... above the excluder.
Put two empty drawn frames on outside of finisher box and feed with 1:1... take any supers off.

AND keep good notes... day 0 is the day queen is placed in Nicot cage

Be prepared to have some losses.. that is why 30 cups will lead to 10 queens with some luck... many seem to use this system with great success...

Chons da

 

[madasafish]

Just to show what can be done:
I inerted Nicot frame - honeyed cells as above into a nuc 25th June.

Inserted Q 26th June

Laid up when inspected 27th June Q released.

10 cells inserted on bar 29th June - very young larvae.
Inserted into a six frame Jumbo Lang nuc# made Q- by removing Q 30 minutes before and placing her in cage in Q- mini nuc. 29th June . Fed syrup and pollen substitute.

Inspected today 30th June - 9 out of 10 started as QC - wax round rim... Q replaced so now Q+

# overflowing with bees dripping out of entrance.. equivalent in size to a 10 frame National brood plus a half box .


All time 1.30pm +/- 1 hour.

 

[Swift Nick]

best advice is to pick out and put in finisher at least 30 of the cell cups that have larvae in with a good pool of royal jelly.
Better results seem to be by using a very strong ( queen right under excluder) colony and place finisher frames between emerging brood and pollen stores... above the excluder.
Put two empty drawn frames on outside of finisher box and feed with 1:1... take any supers off.

AND keep good notes... day 0 is the day queen is placed in Nicot cage

Be prepared to have some losses.. that is why 30 cups will lead to 10 queens with some luck... many seem to use this system with great success...

Chons da

Thanks, I want to end up with 4 to 5 queens (if all goes well), so I have ordered another 10 x Nicot cups, bar holders and cages. I was going for 10 only, but maybe if I go for 20 I may get the 5.
Ref the notes, yes I am doing this, I am sure to forget by next year or next week what I did.