# Nicot System-Queen Laying Stage



## TwoBFlying (Jun 18, 2017)

Hello Everyone,

I am attempting to raise a few queens for the very first time and I am going to use the Nicot queen rearing system. My question is after the laying cage has been cleaned and polished in a hive for 24 hours and next step is to confine the queen in the freshly cleaned and polished Nicot cage to lay. How long do you leave the queen to lay? I have read to allow her to lay only 24 hours to start your cell bar with only eggs all the way up to 5 days until you see larve and royal jelly in the cell cups. Any insight and help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and help as I try something new.


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## theriverhawk (Jun 5, 2009)

I have found that 24 hours is, a vast majority of the time, not long enough. The past couple of years, I have left her in 48 hours and it's worked well. After 48 hours, I let her loose, come back in 2 days to see if they have started to put royal jelly in cells. If so, I shift the cups to the cell maker hives.


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## TwoBFlying (Jun 18, 2017)

Thank you for your reply. The help is greatly appreciated


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

the first time you use it, you may want to leave it in more than a day to be cleaned, they really don't like it the first couple of times I used mine. once they start drawing comb on it, it gets much easier.


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## robirot (Mar 26, 2017)

None of them is right or wrong.

1st you need to wax the laying casset, polish it once for a day and confine your queen, until she layed into the cups. Some queens lay right away and can be freeed afterd 1 h, other queens need to be freed after 7 days and didn't lay one egg. Once you have eggs, you can transfer the cups to the yellow sockets on the raising frame.

In fact the laying casset is not very good or reliable. It is better to just graft like normal into the cups and go from there. Then the Nicot system is really good.


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## little_john (Aug 4, 2014)

robirot said:


> In fact the laying casset is not very good or reliable. It is better to just graft like normal into the cups and go from there. Then the Nicot system is really good.


That's my experience too. Nicot's choice of hole diameter doesn't help - but I've found it to be unreliable even when the holes have been reduced in diameter.
LJ


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

robirot said:


> Once you have eggs, you can transfer the cups to the yellow sockets on the raising frame.


this might work in Germany, but don't try it with american bees, they will just remove the egg, wait until they hatch.


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## robirot (Mar 26, 2017)

wildbranch2007 said:


> this might work in Germany, but don't try it with american bees, they will just remove the egg, wait until they hatch.


Or use a Queenless starter withour any open Brood or eggs


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

robirot said:


> Or use a Queenless starter withour any open Brood or eggs


that's what I use, makes no difference. just a few of the references here on beesource



Juhani Lunden said:


> You have done a good observation. Bees do not accept eggs as starting point for their queen rearing efforts.
> 
> When I used to use the cages (Nicot, Jenter) I confined the queen as long as she had layed eggs. Then I removed the cover (released her) but the cage remained otherwise untouched. Just when the larvae have hatched and are well fed it is the time to move them to queen rearing hives.
> 
> Some queens refuse to lay eggs in the cage.





Michael Bush said:


> >Does anyone have experience in producing queens from cells with eggs instead of larvae
> 
> I have experience at giving them eggs instead of larvae by both the Hopkins method and the Jenter method. I don't have any experience at actually producing any queens from them because the bees just remove them.


http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...nto-a-cell-builder-today&highlight=nicot+eggs


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## TwoBFlying (Jun 18, 2017)

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'm looking forward to giving it a try. It will be a learning experience for sure.


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## snapper1d (Apr 8, 2011)

robirot said:


> None of them is right or wrong.
> 
> 1st you need to wax the laying casset, polish it once for a day and confine your queen, until she layed into the cups. Some queens lay right away and can be freeed afterd 1 h, other queens need to be freed after 7 days and didn't lay one egg. Once you have eggs, you can transfer the cups to the yellow sockets on the raising frame.
> 
> In fact the laying casset is not very good or reliable. It is better to just graft like normal into the cups and go from there. Then the Nicot system is really good.



Wax the cassette? Thats about the only thing I have never tried.


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## robirot (Mar 26, 2017)

snapper1d said:


> Wax the cassette? Thats about the only thing I have never tried.


Yes makes it a lot easier for the queen to walk, but still i recommended to just graft, with the chinese grafting tool it is bo problem to do 6 larva per minute on a normal frame (not timed), most times faster then searching the queen and confining her, and the chinese tool rly doesn't need much training.


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## snapper1d (Apr 8, 2011)

robirot what about the eyes? Magnifiers dont help that much either Thats my biggest problem now days plus the old hands are no where as nimble as they used to be.Getting old sucks and so does the SS check.


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