Cell bar block NICOT®

01 · HOW IT IS FIXED

With pins or screws, not with adhesive

The support sits on the bar of the raising frame and is held mechanically, with small pins or fine-threaded screws. Inside the hive there is heat, damp and propolis: no adhesive lasts a season in there, and when it lets go it does so with the cells in place. Fixed this way, the maker points out that the supports go on and come off without damaging the frame, which is what lets you reuse the same raising frame year after year.

02 · WHAT GOES ON TOP

Block, cup and one queen cell per support

On each support clips a CNE2 block, and inside the block a CNE3 cup. Each trio holds one queen cell, so the number of supports you nail to the bar is the number of cells you can raise on that frame. Space them with enough room to lift each sealed cell without touching its neighbour: when the time comes to share them out to nucs, you are glad of that gap.

03 · IT COMES OFF

The piece comes back, and so does the frame

When the batch is over, block and cup are taken off to be washed and the support can stay on the frame until the next round. It is food-grade, non-porous plastic, so the propolis is scraped off and it washes clean with no smell and no wax left behind. When the frame does need replacing, the supports come off without splintering the wood and go straight onto the new bar.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Sold by the unit. Count one per queen cell, plus a few spares.