Pollen trap grid NICOT®

01 · WHAT IT DOES, AND HOW

The worker just fits through; the load does not

The hole is sized so the worker passes with a scrape and, as she does, part of the loads comes off her legs and drops into the drawer below. Part and not all, and that is deliberate: the colony has to keep bringing pollen in to raise brood. There is a consequence worth knowing before you fit it — the drone does not fit through the grid. If the setup has no drone escapes behind it, they build up and end up plugging the entrance.

02 · FIRST, CHECK THE FIT

Length and bearing points have to match

Offer it up without forcing it and check three things: that it sits flat, that it leaves no side ways round, and that the drawer still goes in and out. If the bees can go around it at one side, the harvest comes out uneven and the traffic bunches at the gap. The collecting tray, the tunnel and the drone escapes are separate pieces: check which of them your setup still has before ordering the grid on its own.

03 · WHEN TO FIT IT AND WHEN NOT

The colony carries the trap, not the other way round

It goes on healthy, strong colonies with pollen coming in steadily, with a settling-in period — free or partly open passage if your system allows — before harvesting in earnest. What it should not be is left on out of habit: off it comes for weak colonies, requeening, tight stores or while any treatment is inside the hive. Watch too that workers and drones move without piling up at the entrance.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Pollen quality is decided under the grid, not in it. Take the drawer out often — daily in damp weather — and do not let the pollen sit warm, wet or packed: heat and moisture are what bring moulds and fermentation. Clean the grid when propolis or caked pollen start narrowing the holes.