Nicot system?

[TREBOR]

Hi all,
just a quick question,
 I just started using the nicot thing....
its the third day after releasing the queen.....
I just went to get the frame for transfer to the cell builder....
they are still eggs.... the bees are there on the frame they seem to be working, sticking they're heads in the cells but there is no pool of royal
jelly and I think they are still eggs....

question is, should I wait one more day or start over...?
all of the eggs I can seen are still white, some are still standing up and some are starting to lean and some seem to have a little dark spot at the end that is not attachted to the cell wall......is that the head of the larva?
or just some dirt.....

if they were dead wouldn't they have cleaned the cells out by now?
 
should I just go ahead and put them in the cell builder now?

any help here would be cool...... :)

[Robo]

From my experience with the Nicot,  putting eggs in the cell builder has been a disaster, they just clean the cells out.

I would give them another day.

Did you remove the excluder cover (and leave it off) when you released the queen?  Not that I think it would be your problem,  but it does make it easier on the nurse bees.

[TREBOR]

Did you remove the excluder cover (and leave it off)

 yup...! :)
and I sprayed it w/honey water lightly and put it in for cleaning and to warm up
more then 24hrs before I put the queen in it! :)  
thanks !

[Michael Bush]

>I just started using the nicot thing....
its the third day after releasing the queen.....
I just went to get the frame for transfer to the cell builder....
they are still eggs.... the bees are there on the frame they seem to be working, sticking they're heads in the cells but there is no pool of royal
jelly and I think they are still eggs....

They will hatch at 3 1/2 days so there is no point looking for larvae until the 4th day.  Counting day 0 as the day you confined the queen, I would expect the proper age larvae on day 4.

>question is, should I wait one more day or start over...?

Wait one more day.

>if they were dead wouldn't they have cleaned the cells out by now?

Most likely.

>should I just go ahead and put them in the cell builder now?

No.  The eggs will just get cleaned out.  You need larvae.

[TREBOR]

Thanks MB,

 Well, the 9th was day 0, the 10th was release day, the 12th well. you know.!
I took it out today inbetween the heavy showers with my girlfriend holding a big umbrella........
 some of the eggs were still eggs, and some had a drop of jelly at the bottom that I could barely see,(I think my eyes are going,which I won't admit to.! )
 I took the ones with jelly and just to fill the bar up,.... some without ,
now we'll see what happens.......... if nothing, I guess I'll star over...!
 This is a Russian queen, do all races have the same timing?
is there some that take alittle longer to hatch..?

[Michael Bush]

> This is a Russian queen, do all races have the same timing?

Yes.

>is there some that take alittle longer to hatch..?

Cold weather will cause them to take longer to hatch.

[Jon McFadden]

I used my Nicot to successfully raise russian queens this spring.
Here is a link to my experience with it:
http://nordykebeefarm.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=6
One of the interesting things was being able to see the laying pattern by the amount of royal jelly which had been deposited in each cell. We waited for the full 3 days before grafting. The first eggs laid had the most royal jelly, while the last laid were still eggs. The eggs hatch after 3 days, but the queen may not have started laying immediatly.

[TREBOR]

thanks for sharing jon  :D

but the queen may not have started laying immediatly.

 ya, I thought of that....!

so, I did get some hatched eggs w/ a little jelly and I also put some eggs in the cellbar too....! and guess what, my cell builder took them....larvea
and eggs alike....the eggs must have just hatched, though I didn't see any jelly in those......!

Now on to the rest of the story,
 when I got this kit it came with a cell bar frame and all of the cell cup holder holders were hot glued in place, I looked at it closer and saw that there were nail holes,...... I thought  to my self, maybe I should put
some nails in that , then I said no it must be ok, if thats what they did,..
 it must work..(I even gave them a good pull, and they were on there)........so anyways at 48 hrs I went back to check for acceptence and when I pulled the frame I notice that there were cells
that had half fallen off the cell bar, I mean the cell holder holders were coming unglued, then I looked down in the pile of bees and there was another one that fell off before I even pulled the frame.....!

SO IF ANY OF YOU BUY A NICOT KIT THAT IS HOT GLUED TOGETHER, BY ALL MEANS, DO TAKE THE TIME TO NAIL IT ALL BEFORE YOU USE IT.......
 
ALL I CAN SAY IS, MAN WHAT POOR SERVICE.....!
IF THEY ARE GOING TO TRY TO DO THE WORK FOR ME
 THE LEAST THEY COULD DO, IS DO IT RIGHT.......

Well, I did get some cells going and maybe some queens.....I'll try to
remember to post my results...!

[Jon McFadden]

Trebor,
I purchased a couple of these frames from BetterBee. As you mentioned, they were hot glued. I, too, had reservations about using them, but thought that since they were sold that way, I would use them as is. The beauty was that the cost of the equipment assembled was less than what it would have cost to purchase the individual parts as I had intended to do.
I didn't have the problem with them coming loose when using them, but afterwards, one of the 40 did fall off. I concur with your recommendation that nails should be used and not rely on the hot glue. Additionally, less spacing would be in order as well. The hot glue spacing places the last holders too close to the endbars and possibly outside the cluster.
The instructional tape says to use ¾” to 7/8” spacing. I haven’t measured the spacing on mine, but instructional tape looks like there is 3/32” between the bases.
I’ll update the information on the site to reflect this, too.
Thanks,
Jon

[TREBOR]

Update,
  I wound up with 7 completed cells, I put six in nucs and left one in cell builder or finisher.........
out of the 7 cells I got three beautiful black queens....2 in nucs and one in
c.builder.  
 3 of the 4 that failed, raised there own queens and all three are laying.
last I looked the orig. russian queens werent laying yet. but they all looked pretty fat.
All in all,I feel it went pretty well, for my first attempt.
 Though I feel that they did a much better job making they're own queens, so next time I may just make queenless nucs w/one frame of eggs from a selected donor hive...!  
 it cost alot less and is less labor.....

why is it that it rains on the days that you HAVE TO do work in the hives?
 after all the work was  done it didnt rain for 5 days aleast.....go figure... :lol:

[Brian D. Bray]

>>why is it that it rains on the days that you HAVE TO do work in the hives?
after all the work was done it didnt rain for 5 days aleast.

For the same reason we have Ants at Picnic's, It's sunny during the week, and most of the bad weather comes on weekends, It Rains On parades, and Up my way It almost never snows on Christmas.  Mother Nature has a perverse sense of humor.