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Tried the nicot system, not a single larvae or egg left in a cell, the queen was locked in for 24 hours. Anyone having success with this. I had the cell bar ready and grafted a few cells which are now in the top section of a Snelgrove board along with a new frame of larvae. I have QC's in the Snelgrove top boxes but the nicot failure is a bit dissapointing
This is what I would try it has worked for me anyway
First screw your nicot cassette into a clean new frame
Fit foundation into the frame around the cassette cut bits to fit
Set up a Ben harden queen rearing system in a strong hive
Catch your queen and put her in the nicot
Put the frame with her and the cassette above the queen excluder as an extra to the Ben Harden setup
(Dont spray sugar syrup or anything)
After 24 hours have a look for eggs
If they are laid up don't pull the front off the cassette just take out the white plug
The queen will find her way out after a while
Wait till the eggs hatch 3 days
Look at the back of the cassette and choose cups with plenty royal jelly
Use the white cup holder to pick them up
Stick them on your queen raising frame which will will have been sitting empty in the Ben Harden
Leave the cassette in the queen raiser above the queen excluder
Check for starts after 24hrs
Any misses use the white holder to pick up other cups from the cassette
Check again 24 hrs later
any misses you have one more go at getting cups from cassette
Remove cassette (they will have been drawing the new wax on the frame
wait for queen cells to mature
If they are building brace comb on cells try and distract them with a frame fitted with starter strip only
Thanks John might be obvious but a couple of questionsQuote:
Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger
How long would you have BH box in place before putting queen and box in and how long before you put the queen back in the bottom box
I had success after I half filled the cells with honey.
I also left the frame in the box for 48 hours before trapping the queen in the cassette.
These mean the frame acquires the hive odour and the cells are cleaned out ready to lay.
I have also found the propensity to lay in the cells differs from queen to queen.
A day in top for the cassette before you use it might be helpfulQuote:
Originally Posted by nemphlar
Like Black Comb I find some queens are not keen layers
The most common thing is the eggs being removed after the queen comes out
Just removing the plug seems to stop that
After the queen finds her way out and the eggs are still there next day you can move the queen down
She is easier to put back in the cassette from the top if they do take the eggs out
When the queen is in full lay sometimes just overnight in the cassette is long enough
It works well early season not so well later on I found
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BC I did try filling with honey leaving in for a few days prior to trapping queen, difficult to tell if the queen lay in the cells as that is all that's available, with workers removing them if they are not ready to allow queen cells. I've always thought the queen is controlled by the workers if the don't want it to happen it doesn't.
DR thanks again I'll dig out the Ben harden box and try it again