Hi all,

Juanse wrote:

I change from JZBZ cups to Nicolet because this latter system have a nice
tube as a queen cage so as to allow the queen to be born caged. The only
trick is take the cell out of the cup the day after emergence cause some
queen are trapped when going out after feeding in the royal jelly.
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I have been trying out different systems to raise virgins to install in
splits. The last spring in Florida I drilled out 2x4's to put in hair
rollers and set the JZBZ ripe cells to hatch out in the incubator. Then I
would transfer the board into the middle of a powerful hive in the second
story between brood frames and feed them. 

The problem I encountered was trying to pull out the hair roller with the
queen in it. They would be in the hole and it was difficult to get them out. 

I'm interested in what you have tried, Juanse. Could you send me the web
address where I could find the Nicolet system? Very interesting. 

I would appreciate any input on systems to raise virgins for splits with
corresponding nuggets of wisdom gained from experience. 

We get about 75% take on queen cells, sometimes as high as 90+%. The one
that don't accept the cell usually make their own queen and some of those
are stubby runts. It is time consuming to try to find the virgins at our
checkback period (about 18 days after installation is my preference)and I
prefer to wait another 5 or 6 days until they are laying and settled down.
We use laying queens for the "no-takes" to get them up to speed.

see ya,
Kirk

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