Incubator 196 cells Swienty®

01 · WHAT IT DOES

It finishes the cycle outside the finisher colony

The incubator does not raise cells: it takes those already capped and ripe, around day 10 after grafting, and holds them until the queen chews her way out on day 11 or 12. Moving them frees the finisher for the next round and heads off the classic breeder's accident, an early virgin walking the bar and tearing open her sisters' cells.

02 · CLIMATE

Thermostat from 15 to 40 °C and water on a float valve

Temperature and humidity are both read and set on the digital display. Water feeds from the external jerrycan into a tank with a float valve, and a heater evaporates it during the heating cycles: touch it between cycles and it is cold, which is how it works. The double glazing insulates better than single glass and only fogs near 80 % relative humidity, so you can watch the batch without opening the door. Around 0.5 kWh over 24 hours.

03 · THE TRAYS

98 cages per tray, clipped in without tools

Two trays are supplied, each with room for 98 cages with their cell cup holder and cell cup: 196 in all. The cages clip in and come out the same way, and the whole tray pulls out to load, to check emergences or to wash. The kit ships 200 complete sets, four more than fit, and they are consumables replaced singly from the Nicot range.

04 · COMPATIBILITY

The mount is Nicot; the cell itself can come from any system

What clips onto the tray is the Nicot roller cage on its cell cup holder, and that is the only part the incubator insists on. How you raised the cell makes no difference — grafting into cups, Cupularve, Jenter — but before it goes in, the cell has to end up in that assembly. If you raise on a wooden bar or on cups from another system, budget for that step: the trays take neither bars nor cups that will not seat in the holder.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is a 50 × 50 × 55 cm cabinet of about 35 kg that wants a fixed bench and a 230 V / 50 Hz socket: it is not field kit. It does not raise cells and it does not replace a mating nuc, because what comes out is an unmated virgin queen. The manufacturer states no battery backup.