Thankyou all for the hints and tips! I do try for the smallest ones I can possibly pick up, and can get pretty tiny ones.
Ghislaine, we do have Nicot boxes available! Tim and I tried one two summers ago but muffed the first try and ran out of time to run a second trial. I read Grant Gillard's "Nicot Queen Rearing" which is a big help and I also like the DVD by David Eyre on Queenrearing, which includes a section on Nicot.
So...in making our list of "to-do in 2020", running the Nicot box was at the top. It really should be the answer to all our collywobbles and questions. That said we'll also graft: I get so few chances to practice in a season...makes it hard to build skills.
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