Nicot cupkit failure

[thenovice]

Hi all,

tried the cupkit last year. queen laid it up nicely but when she is released, the bees cleared out all the eggs. I thought this was due to a lack of flow and vowed to try again this year.

tried 3 times this year. first time, exactly the same happened. second time, I had some larvae at day 3 but only 1 QC was made. 3rd attempt, I found some larvae and decided to leave them a bit longer (24h post hatch). again, only 2 out of 16 cups were made into QC.

what am I doing wrong. flow was on big time for the last attempt.

any pointers would be great.

 

[B+.]

what am I doing wrong. .

Probably nothing. I gave up on the Nicot cassette system after a number of failures too. I find that grafting into the cups is much more reliable

 

[madasafish]

Hi all,

tried the cupkit last year. queen laid it up nicely but when she is released, the bees cleared out all the eggs. I thought this was due to a lack of flow and vowed to try again this year.

tried 3 times this year. first time, exactly the same happened. second time, I had some larvae at day 3 but only 1 QC was made. 3rd attempt, I found some larvae and decided to leave them a bit longer (24h post hatch). again, only 2 out of 16 cups were made into QC.

what am I doing wrong. flow was on big time for the last attempt.

any pointers would be great.

I take it you are moving the cage to another Q- hive as a starter and then either making it Q+ or to another as a finisher? If not, please explain the system you are using.. so many it is difficult to comment..( I have never had any unusual difficulties with the system I outlined)

 

[thenovice]

I take it you are moving the cage to another Q- hive as a starter and then either making it Q+ or to another as a finisher? If not, please explain the system you are using.. so many it is difficult to comment..( I have never had any unusual difficulties with the system I outlined)

I move clean cupkit to Q+ hive at least 7days before laying. then put Q in cupkit for 1 day. release her after 24h but leave cupkit in the same hive for 3 days. then move the choosen cups into a cell bar to a Q- hive to make QC. at day 14/15 they go to an apidea (well, just the one in this case, the other apideas were filled with QCs from a swarming colony).

 

[madasafish]

I move clean cupkit to Q+ hive at least 7days before laying. then put Q in cupkit for 1 day. release her after 24h but leave cupkit in the same hive for 3 days. then move the choosen cups into a cell bar to a Q- hive to make QC. at day 14/15 they go to an apidea (well, just the one in this case, the other apideas were filled with QCs from a swarming colony).

put Q in cupkit for 1 day. release her after 24h but leave cupkit in the same hive for 3 days.

When you move the kit to a Q- starter, they will recognise any eggs as not their own and remove them. If they are larvae they will start QueenCells. I always check for larvae before I move to a Q- starter.. Easily seen by a very small pool of royal Jelly at the bottom of the cell.. I look through the bottom from the bottom of the cell against light - easier than peering into a cell.

If you time the entire procedure to the hour: remove queen say at 2pm and insert cells into a Q- at 5pm 3 days later, in theory all the eggs will be larvae. If you transfer at (say )10am 3 days later, then it could be eggs laid late will still be eggs...

If you check for RJ at the bottom of the cells, then you KNOW they are larvae.

 

[jignog]

You should leave the queen in the cassette until the eggs have developed into larvae.

 

[mbc]

Probably nothing. I gave up on the Nicot cassette system after a number of failures too. I find that grafting into the cups is much more reliable

This.
I think the cells are a bit narrow and unnatural when they're in the cassette so the bees eat the contents given any choice.

 

[masterBK]

I have not really had many problems with cupkit so not sure what I am doing right. I don't even bother to get the queen box preprocessed by the bees by smearing it in honey. I did have a queen escape the box through the slot gap in the sides of the box as I hadn't pushed the excluder lid down enough. Most of the nonacceptance of the cups by the cell raiser are usually down to not preparing the cell raiser/starter properly.