Nicot newbie

[italic63]

Yes of course. I really appreciate all and any input.
The colony which I suspect is queenless is actual quite strong I think. Despite the lack of brood it is still on 9 frames with plenty of pollen, honey etc.
That particular colony are Ligustica, the other smaller one is Buckfast.

 

[user 819]

Yes of course. I really appreciate all and any input.
The colony which I suspect is queenless is actual quite strong I think. Despite the lack of brood it is still on 9 frames with plenty of pollen, honey etc.
That particular colony are Ligustica, the other smaller one is Buckfast.

The QL colony you stated as 2 frames now you are saying 9, if the latter it will be fine. Queens in larger colonies tend not to have the urgency to get mated.
Leave them to it now for two weeks no disturbance, if you inspect when the Q is on a mating flight you could cause her to get lost on returning.

 

[masterBK]

I find it curious that with only two colonies you are using the nicot system when all you want is such a small number of Q cells. There are simpler and just as effective methods

 

[italic63]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I'm sure. I only have one Queen and not enough brood on the Queen right colony to be able to use it.

 

[italic63]

Hello everyone from the north of Italy. I'm in that terrible initial stage of needing to try something never tried before so bear with...
I have only 2 hives, one strong one which swarmed about 3 weeks ago and one much weaker which has a laying queen and is on about 2 healthy frames of brood. The queenless hive gave birth to a virgin queen about 2 weeks ago so i left them to get on with and crossed my fingers... i inspected the hive to check for a mated queen and some signs of new brood but nothing. I assume therefore that the queen never mated successfully and the hive goes on queenless.
I thought I would try my hands at the Nicot to try and generate some queen cells so I put the frame in about 4 days ago with some sugar water on it. Bees seemed to be in there and cleaning it out. A couple of days ago I introduced the queen and she spent the forst day or so trying to escape with her back to the empty cells. I went back and had a look last night and there were around 20 cells with eggs inside however 3/4 of them had 2 or 3 eggs in there.
Questions:
1) are those cells with multiple eggs from laying workers?
2) are the remainder with the single eggs from the Queen?
3) should I reject the eggs and start again to be safe?
4) should I just ignore how many egs there are and release the queen and wait for the young larvae to appear?subsequent ones only got 1

Thanks and be kind...I know I've got so much to learn

So the Queen has now filled the Nicot with eggs. Only a couple of cells in the bottom corner got 2/3 eggs each when she was starting off, all the others got only 1.
Do i leave the Nicot queen excluder on Eden I release her or take it off?

 

[drex]

Going right back to the first post, the OP is trying to raise queens using the Nicot system, in what turns out to be very weak colonies. To make good strong queens you need good strong colonies, so I suggest the OP takes a different tack, limiting the number of queens to be raised.

 

[italic63]

Hello everyone from the north of Italy. I'm in that terrible initial stage of needing to try something never tried before so bear with...
I have only 2 hives, one strong one which swarmed about 3 weeks ago and one much weaker which has a laying queen and is on about 2 healthy frames of brood. The queenless hive gave birth to a virgin queen about 2 weeks ago so i left them to get on with and crossed my fingers... i inspected the hive to check for a mated queen and some signs of new brood but nothing. I assume therefore that the queen never mated successfully and the hive goes on queenless.
I thought I would try my hands at the Nicot to try and generate some queen cells so I put the frame in about 4 days ago with some sugar water on it. Bees seemed to be in there and cleaning it out. A couple of days ago I introduced the queen and she spent the forst day or so trying to escape with her back to the empty cells. I went back and had a look last night and there were around 20 cells with eggs inside however 3/4 of them had 2 or 3 eggs in there.
Questions:
1) are those cells with multiple eggs from laying workers?
2) are the remainder with the single eggs from the Queen?
3) should I reject the eggs and start again to be safe?
4) should I just ignore how many egs there are and release the queen and wait for the young larvae to appear?

Thanks and be kind...I know I've got so much to learn

Hello everyone.
Firstly thanks once again for all your input. Your experience is precious to me!
So just an update. After releasing the Queen I checked back on the eggs in the Nicot frame and had found that all the eggs had either been moved out and/or destroyed. Result: competely cleaned out Nicot frame...
So 7 days ago I took a frame of fresh uncapped brood and gave it to the queenless colony plus a bunch of young bees in the hope they will raise themselves a new queen.
The colony suddenly from the outside seemed to get very active in a calm sort of way (if that makes sense) which makes me hopeful that they are getting on with it.
So I have a bunch of new questions .
1. Should I leave them be or check they have some queen cells?
2. Given that is not a very strong colony should I look to leave them with just 1 queen cell or just leave them alone?
3. If I do leave them when should I check if a virgin queen has emerged?
As I said 7 days ago I introduced a frame with a mixture of eggs and larvae.
Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone from the north of Italy. I'm in that terrible initial stage of needing to try something never tried before so bear with...
I have only 2 hives, one strong one which swarmed about 3 weeks ago and one much weaker which has a laying queen and is on about 2 healthy frames of brood. The queenless hive gave birth to a virgin queen about 2 weeks ago so i left them to get on with and crossed my fingers... i inspected the hive to check for a mated queen and some signs of new brood but nothing. I assume therefore that the queen never mated successfully and the hive goes on queenless.
I thought I would try my hands at the Nicot to try and generate some queen cells so I put the frame in about 4 days ago with some sugar water on it. Bees seemed to be in there and cleaning it out. A couple of days ago I introduced the queen and she spent the forst day or so trying to escape with her back to the empty cells. I went back and had a look last night and there were around 20 cells with eggs inside however 3/4 of them had 2 or 3 eggs in there.
Questions:
1) are those cells with multiple eggs from laying workers?
2) are the remainder with the single eggs from the Queen?
3) should I reject the eggs and start again to be safe?
4) should I just ignore how many egs there are and release the queen and wait for the young larvae to appear?

Thanks and be kind...I know I've got so much to learn

Hello everyone.
Firstly thanks once again for all your input. Your experience is precious to me!
So just an update. After releasing the Queen I checked back on the eggs in the Nicot frame and had found that all the eggs had either been moved out and/or destroyed. Result: competely cleaned out Nicot frame...
So 7 days ago I took a frame of fresh uncapped brood and gave it to the queenless colony plus a bunch of young bees in the hope they will raise themselves a new queen.
The colony suddenly from the outside seemed to get very active in a calm sort of way (if that makes sense) which makes me hopeful that they are getting on with it.
So I have a bunch of new questions .
1. Should I leave them be or check they have some queen cells?
2. Given that is not a very strong colony should I look to leave them with just 1 queen cell or just leave them alone?
3. If I do leave them when should I check if a virgin queen has emerged?
As I said 7 days ago I introduced a frame with a mixture of eggs and larvae.
Thanks in advance!

 

[drex]

You introduced the frame of larvae 7 days ago. It would have been better to check after about 3 days.
Any queen cells are now likely to be sealed, at which point they could have swarmed ( unlikely). I would now reduce to one ( some say two - for insurance) cells. If any cells are uncapped with a fat larva, swimming in jelly, choose that, otherwise the biggest, well sculpted cell. If you wanted you could put any excess cells into a nucs or two and raise extra queens.
It is thought that stronger colonies produce better queens. The bees choose the youngest larvae possible ( 3 days after egg laid) . The virgin emerges on day 16. A quick check is OK a day or two later, then leave alone for 3 weeks