Cupkit cell cups - head's-up.

[Little_John]

Just stocking-up on gear for next year, and I was a bit miffed to find that the only cell cups on Ebay were those Chinese luminous green cups which - although dirt cheap at around £6 a thousand - won't fit the CupKit holders.

So - spoke to Richard at Beezkneez, and he's just listed some on Ebay - in case anybody needs ...

LJ

[Jon]

You can stick them directly on to the bar with a drop of wax and graft into them.

[busybeephilip]

Hi jon,

Yes you can stick them on a cell bar like the brown cupkit ones I used when was with you in the summer, the problem comes later if you are intending to cage them as there is so much wax built up by the bees that they will not go into the cream cell holders unless you are really very careful, if you damage the cell too much then the bees will destroy it. fine to do it this way if you are introducing directly to nucs after they are sealed and a day or two before hatching

Phil

[Jon]

It was your setup I was thinking of. Seemed to work ok.

[Little_John]

Hi jon,

Yes you can stick them on a cell bar like the brown cupkit ones I used when was with you in the summer, the problem comes later if you are intending to cage them as there is so much wax built up by the bees that they will not go into the cream cell holders unless you are really very careful,

I'm surprised to hear that they fit into the holders at all. The Ebay Chinese ad says their's have a 9.5mm internal diameter, whereas the kosher Cupkit cells I've already got are 9.5mm external at the base (10mm external diameter at the opening), so based on that info, I had assumed that they wouldn't fit.

Are you telling me I've spent money unnecessarily ? I won't be able to sleep tonight, now.

LJ

[busybeephilip]

Hi LJ, hope you managed a bit of sleep.

When I said a cell bar I meant a lath of plain timber in a BS frame where the brown, (or in your case the green) where directly glued with molten wax to the wooden lathe as would have been done with home made wax cups made with a dowel pre plastic cell cup era. As I said the problem comes when you want to cage the completed cells prior to hatching. I did try in some cases putting the tip of the detached cell into the hole a californa cage. That procedure worked for me but the queens were only kept in the cage for around 24hours, any longer and the queen or bees could eat the cell away and release the virgin into the hive - one takes a bit of a gamble!

Actually, thinking a bit more about it I could have glued the brown cups into wooden cell holders (I have somewhere) which might have fitted cupkit roller cages but I was in a hurry at the time.

Phil

[busybeephilip]

Just wondering how other persons do this.

How you you guys clean your cupkit cream colored cell holders and does anyone reuse the brown cups?

I have a couple of hunderd of these lying in a box all waxed up and was thinking of dumping them into the Burco for a minute or two.

I have reused brown cups where the grafted larvae did not take with no problem but we all like to save money so does anyone recyle brown cups or just dump them?

Phil

[mbc]

The cream coloured cell holders benefit from a bit of wax to keep the cell cups in, and the stingy beekeepers amongst us might have discovered the brown cell cups are good to go again after a quick steam clean

[fatshark]

Pretty much as above ... I don't clean the cream cell holders others then breaking off excess wax. I usually just drop the cell cups into a beaker of boiling water. I do remove old royal jelly first. They end up with a thin smear of wax over them which seems to not cause any problems.

[Jon]

I leave the wax on the cream cups. I used to recycle the inserts but it is hardy worth the bother when they cost £4 for 100, less if you buy in bulk.