Introduction Cage Nicot NICOT®

01 · WHEN TO USE IT

For requeening a laying queen

Its scenario is requeening: you take the old queen out and want to put in a mated one, bought or reared yourself. The colony has to be queenless and prepared first — as a rule of thumb around 24 hours of queenlessness if she comes with bees from her own colony and around 48 if not, though every breeder has their own protocol. What this cage is not: the way to introduce a newly emerged virgin. That case calls for an introduction cell, which mimics the hatch rather than caging the queen.

02 · FITTING

Onto emerging brood, and the queen goes in last

Order matters. First load the candy into the store recess and close it with its plug. Then pick a frame of emerging brood, ideally from the colony itself: the bees that hatch inside the cage come into the world alongside the queen and tend her without conflict. Shake or brush the bees off that patch, uncap the area that will end up enclosed and press the cage home on its four spikes, flat against the comb. Only then, with everything set, put the queen in and close it.

03 · WHY IT FAILS

If it does not seat, they come in underneath

The usual failure is not the candy, it is the seating. If the frame does not bed right down onto the comb, the workers tunnel through the wax at the edges and get in underneath without touching the plug — and the release stops being gradual. Push all four spikes fully home and check the rim bites into the wax all the way round. After that, leave it alone: no daily peeking, no knocks, no direct sun, no strong smells. If on inspection you find bees biting persistently at the mesh, that is a sign of rejection and worth rethinking rather than pressing on.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The cage lowers the risk and gives you control over the pace of the release, but the colony has the last word: acceptance rests on queenlessness, population, the state of the queen, feed and the weather. No accessory guarantees it.