On the back of a Nicot Cupkit ...

[itma]

At the top of the back of the Cupkit box, there's what looks very much like a Q introduction cage.

The back plug opens onto a small chamber with bee-excluder (feeding?) slots and what looks like a chamber for a candy/fondant plug, which then gives access to a hole through to the front of the Cupkit box

Has anyone used that part of the toyset?
If so, for what, how and why?



I'm thinking that Q could come out but be trapped in the QX box, and if they then decided to kill her, at least you might see the body ...

Or is perhaps for valuable 'breeder' Qs, that one wouldn't ever want running around entirely loose in an ordinary hive?

Having noticed this feature of the Cupkit, I'm curious about it.

 

[B+.]

Has anyone used that part of the toyset?
If so, for what, how and why?
I'm thinking that Q could come out but be trapped in the QX box, and if they then decided to kill her, at least you might see the body ...

Or is perhaps for valuable 'breeder' Qs, that one wouldn't ever want running around entirely loose in an ordinary hive?

Having noticed this feature of the Cupkit, I'm curious about it.

I believe that it is intended as a queen introduction cage but I have never used it as such.
If you put the queen in the small area with excluder on it and candy in the "candi" compartment, you have the same means of realease as a travelling cage. The workers can come through the excluder on the front of the cage, lick at the fondant and release the queen. However, since the excluder is over the front, she can not escape into the hive but has to remain in the cage (and hopefully start laying in the cells). If you want a quick release, you can remove the plug in the back (over the candy compartment) and she can escape through the circular hole in the back of the cage.
It sounds like a flexible approach but I have never used it for queen introduction. I prefer to use a wire mesh introduction cage so she has access to cells of open honey and emerging brood (who will always accept her). I think the problem with using the cupkit system as an introduction cage are:
1. She has no opportunity to feed or lay while trapped in the small cage next to the candy compartment. In this way, it is no better than a travelling cage since all she can do is solicit food from the other bees.
2. It doesn't take long at all for the bees to lick through that candy plug and she is immediately accessible to all of the bees in the colony/nuc. It is usually older bees that show aggression to introduced queens and the candy doesn't provide a long enough delay before they have unrestricted access to her.
3. Valuable breeder queens that may have spent several days in the post can go a little "off-lay". For this reason, I prefer the push in introduction cage where the only bees that have unrestricted access to the queen are those that have just emerged from their cells. They show her no aggresssion at all as she is the only queen they have ever known. She also has the opportunity to feed from open honey cells or solicit food through the grid without the older bees having direct access to her. This gives enough time for her pheremones to spread before older bees can ball the queen. By the time you remove the cage (around 3 days if they show no aggression to the cage) she is calm and walks over the comb like a normal mated queen. The bees have had ample time to accept her too.

 

[hallshoney]

I have used it primarily to re queen a hideously evil colony with a good old spare queen it work and i got the best result yet for laying in a cupkit box