Plastic tray for NICOT bottom

When you walk into the apiary in mid-winter or early spring and see the hive closed up, the same question always comes to mind: what is happening inside without opening and chilling the brood nest? Working blind is never a good idea, and that is exactly where this Nicot tray stops being “just plastic” and becomes a real diagnostic tool.

The tray for Nicot hygienic floors is designed to slide into the runners of Nicot ventilated bottoms and close the floor completely whenever you need it. This turns an open mesh floor into a very accurate system for sanitary and thermal control.

Its first job is Varroa monitoring. With a thin layer of Vaseline or oil, you can count natural mite fall or check how effective your treatments (amitraz, oxalic acid, formic acid, thymol) have been after 24 to 48 hours. Seeing the mites on the light surface helps you decide whether a follow-up treatment is really necessary, without cracking the hive open.

The second big advantage is heat management in the brood area. At spring build-up, closing the floor helps maintain brood temperature around 35 °C and stops the colony wasting energy in cold or windy out-yards. When summer heat arrives or during migratory beekeeping, you simply remove the tray to restore maximum ventilation.

The tray also allows a fast reading of hive debris: by pulling it out you can read wax scales (comb building and uncapping), fresh pollen crumbs (nectar flow) or signs of chalkbrood-type problems linked to excess moisture. It is a few-seconds diagnosis without touching a single frame.

Made of high-density technical injection-moulded plastic, it is recyclable, resistant to treatment acids and very easy to clean with a scraper and water, with no pores where old wax or spores can build up. It is compatible with Nicot ventilated hygienic floors for Dadant and Langstroth hives, running in the standard Nicot guide rails. It can also be used as a drip tray in Nicot pallet systems during harvest to catch honey drips and reduce robbing in the honey house or on the truck.

Size: 475 x 380 x 14 mm