Nicot woes

[For want of a better word]

A recurring problem....

Day minus 4
Nicot cage with cell cups loaded and sprayed with weak sugar solution placed in between brood frames in 1/2 box of brood + 1 1/2

Day 0 (five days after day minus 4)
Queen captured and placed in Nicot cage

Day 1 ( ie 24 hours after queen in)
Queen released.... majority of cell cup with eggs)

Day 3
Eggs hatch

Day 5
Cell cups taken out of Nicot and checked for larvae in pool of royal jelly, and those put into queen minus ( on top) cell rearing colony

Day 14

Queen cells to incubator and caged for creeping.

I have been using this schedule very successfully for some years now without much of a problem, and have raised many queens this way of both my NZ Italian and more recently the Pure Black Cornish Amm.

I seem to be getting some failures at Day 5... although there have been a plethora of eggs on Day 1, few or even none are reared into the pool of royal jelly stage.

The Nicot is placed exactly back in the same position between the frames and in same orientation

Any pointers as to why..... the cell cups are a mix of new and used... all are polished on Day 0... and seem to be polished again on day 5 ?

Suggestion has been made to try putting the Nicot cage immediately into the cell finisher on Day 1 once queen has been released?

I think weather has some part to play and bees are removing eggs to another part of the brood.

"Try grafting" is not the answer I am looking for!


Yeghes da

 

[masterBK]

I had the same happen when queen released after a couple of days after cells laid up and found very few larvae (only 8!) at transfer day (day 5) and the other cells filled with nectar. So I did it again but this time left the queen in the Nicot cage til day 5 and lots of larvae to harvest. The presence of the queen seems to inhibit them removing the eggs/larvae from the Nicot. I think it was also the weather and the state of the honey flow.

 

[For want of a better word]

Thanks MasterBK... I will give that a try!

Yeghes da

 

[B+.]

A recurring problem....

This is one of the reasons I gave up on the Nicot cage. Sometimes I would find no eggs at all had been laid and other times they would remove all of the eggs as soon as I released the queen. I wondered if the age of the queen had a bearing on what happened or the location of the cage within the brood nest relative to where she had last laid (i.e. next to eggs of the same age).

MasterBK's idea would probably work but I think you would lose one of the benefits that the system is supposed to deliver (i.e. to deliver larvae of a known age).

Did you simulate a light flow by feeding? I found that the bees didn't tend the eggs/larvae very well if the flow was too strong

 

[For want of a better word]

This is one of the reasons I gave up on the Nicot cage. Sometimes I would find no eggs at all had been laid and other times they would remove all of the eggs as soon as I released the queen. I wondered if the age of the queen had a bearing on what happened or the location of the cage within the brood nest relative to where she had last laid (i.e. next to eggs of the same age).

MasterBK's idea would probably work but I think you would lose one of the benefits that the system is supposed to deliver (i.e. to deliver larvae of a known age).

Did you simulate a light flow by feeding? I found that the bees didn't tend the eggs/larvae very well if the flow was too strong

Thanks.. a good point for debate... I try to judge the larvae age by the amount of royal jelly in the cell cup.
On day five the oldest egg/larvae would be six days... youngest 1 day,
I think I would take a chance as there is a probability of at least some being the correct age... and then there is the egg selection, being carried out by the bees themselves ( subject of paper you put up)

20 would be better than zero

I must try grafting again... but seriously need to go to Specksavers first

May try light flow feeding too as the Amms will keep drones around for the next 60 days or so... enough time for some experimentation... I need the queens for II as well!!!

Yeghes da

 

[MuswellMetro]

Thanks MasterBK... I will give that a try!

Yeghes da

had the same problem this year, no larvae at day five, so will do the same, though might try grafting as well

 

[The Drone Ranger]

you can try just removing the front white plug and let the queen find her way out
The Q/X front stays on and they are less likely to remove eggs and store nectar in there

 

[masterBK]

I always leave the QX front on as I sometimes they build wild comb on the apparatuis if you don't. I also had a queen that chose not to leave via the hole left by removing the white plug and stayed until the 5th day when I let her out before harvesting the cell plugs.