# Re-using cell cups - Nicot



## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

I was curious why you cant reuse cups as well.


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## IndianaHoney (Jun 5, 2006)

You can, but acceptance is greatly reduced. The bees will reject more of them.


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

This is Michael Bush`s idea

Put the cups in a "seive" and swish them in hot wax and keep swishing them till cool, you get a nice wax coated cup and the bees should accept them.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Acutally I do it in hot water, not wax, but the wax melts off and they get a coat of wax. Don't leave them in the hot water as they will deform. But a quick swish seems to work.

Now I've just stopped cleaning them at all. I peal off the old queen cocoons and use them as is.

I reuse all the parts and get excellent acceptance.


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

*Brown cell cups*

If you use only 12-15 out of the cups, You can go the watering Hose with a sprayer (make sure the back is in place on the box so you dont blow out the cups and just rinse them out they will work great when ever she lays in them again)

When you have put them on the cell bar and put them in your starter and they do there cell building. AFTER THIS Usage IS WHEN YOU DONT WANT TO REUSE THEM. all the dried jelly in the bottom and wax around them Ect but with a real good clean like MB said might work good


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## Keith Benson (Feb 17, 2003)

Thanks guys, It didn't make sense to me that thy were really a one time only deal, and it seemed a waste.

Velbert - I am interested in that half frame cell starter you have in the pics. How are the queens raised in such a small set up?


Keith


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

*dynamite comes in small packages*

They were very well populated Lots of young nurse bees


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## Robert Hawkins (May 27, 2005)

Should bee a way to let the bees clean 'em out. Any ideas?

Hawk


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

*cleaning cell cups*

I have been saving mine, I thought about putting them back on the cell bar and let the bees clean them out Had not tried it yet


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## Keith Benson (Feb 17, 2003)

Velbert said:


> They were very well populated Lots of young nurse bees


My bad - I meant how are the queens in terms of quality.

Keith


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## Velbert (Mar 19, 2006)

*Quality of Queens*

Great Quality

These Big Baby nucs Turn out great queens... 1st What effect Quality Is your Genetics,Condition of the Starter/Finisher (having plenty of nurse bees and quality of food and plenty of it) to raise good Queens

2nd When you place your Ripe Queen Cell into you mating nucs You need plenty of bees and good Stores (dont let them run low) Feed 


I normally us a lot bigger Starter finisher (FULL SIZE)

Just done this to show That if all you need is 5-10 Queen cell it dont take a full size Colonies Shake down to get them.

You can Just shake about 4 frame of nurse bees that are heavy with bees on them. and place in a small area 3 frame nuc full size In length ( 9 1/8 Deep ..Medium, or Shallow Frame) it keeps all the bees crowded together instead of have a large area for them to scatter all around in and dont stay as organized in building your cells.

Some may think that the Queens wont turn out as good in a Mini Mating Nuc. NOT TRUE Just put in plenty of bees
to keep the cell warm and have plenty for them to feed on.

Just because you put them in a 4 or 5 frame nuc with 2 frames with brood and bees and a frame of honey does not guarantee a productive queen Even with this set up they could still not have the resources to keep the cell warm. Even though you put in extra bees have seen many that the bees drifted to another divide or full size hive that has a functional Queen
Leaving the divide not having enough bees 

Resulting in a poor cared for Queen.

Main thing is to maintain a nuc with plenty of bees and Stores then you will have a good Queen if they have genetics and plenty of fertile Drones to mate with.


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## CWBees (May 11, 2006)

On the instructional video on the Nicot system from Beeworks they say to let the bees clean out the cups. I assume they mean used cups since the new ones have nothing to clean.


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## jdpro5010 (Mar 22, 2007)

My understanding from the video and from other sources is that even when the cups are brand new, to get good acceptance of them, you must put the nicot with the cups in a day or two before hand so that the bees may polish the cups. I don't know exactly what that means but I assume that this means the workers have ok'd the cell for the queen to lay in or maybe even scented the cell somehow.


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## bee crazy (Oct 6, 2005)

One problem I keep having is getting the cell protector of the nicot system won't go over the finished cell. They draw the cell too fat. What am I onig wrong? I have good luck using the cell cups again. I have raised some very fat queens with this system.


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

I had the same issue with the Jenter and the curler cages. I think the wooden incubator bar is a better answer.


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## tarheit (Mar 26, 2003)

I've been reusing the JZBZ cell cups with good success (even though it says that reuse reduces acceptance in the Mann-Lake catalogue). I just make sure they are clean (the bees pretty much do it if allowed to hatch in the mating nuc) and I throw out any the larvae/pupae died in, just to avoid any possible virus.

As a test I did one grafting frame 50% new and 50% old cell cups (18 of each) a couple years ago. One trial is hardly conclusive, but I found no difference at all (100% acceptance in both groups). I don't see why it would be any different for the nicot or other systems.

-Tim


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