Nicot cupkit failure

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thenovice

Field Bee
Joined
Apr 29, 2014
Messages
533
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1
Location
Canterbury
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
Aim for 4 but tend to end with 15
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.
 
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)
 
Last edited:
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).
 
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.
 
You should leave the queen in the cassette until the eggs have developed into larvae.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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