Nicot System and the Jenter system of queen rearing are similar. The difference being that in the Nicot system the eggs are laid in the bottom of the one piece cell cup. The Jenter system uses a a 2 piece cell cup the bottom of the cell where the egg is laid and when it hatches it is removed and inserted in to the bottom of the queen cup. The Jenter system needs the bees to draw out the cells in the plastic frame before the queen will lay in the cells. With the Nicot system the cells cups that are snapped in from the back of the frame are the only cells that are deep enough for the queen to lay in. Do to the way they do snap in I feel that the worker bees may not be able to polish the cups properly when they are in the frames. As the instruction suggests that new cell cups be used every time.
In these queen rearing system and the queen is placed and confined to the frame and the queen lays in the cell bottom that are removed and placed in the cell cups or directly in the cup, so finding the queen is necessary on these systems.
I have used the Jenter system years ago and still us the queen cups but I graft directly into them. The reason I do not use the system as intended is. First you have to find the queen and get her into the cage. It takes leaving the queen in the cage 4 days or longer to get larva the proper age to inserted on cell bars to be drawn as queen cells. You are pulling a frame to place the special frame in the hive and then have to remove the frame and replace the frame after releasing the queen. In the videos most stated 50% success, you should be able to achieve that rate of success grafting directly into cells. The system works it just requires more times going into the hive disturbing the bees and interrupting the laying queen. Having to find and move the queen, rather than just finding a frame with brood the proper age and just grafting from it.
Queen cell building success is dependent on a lot of factors. Cell starter, is one of the most critical that it has bees the proper age and they are ready to look after the cells as soon as they are received. The second is that the larva are not allowed to dry out while being transferred in to the cell builder and the grafts being ignored by the bees until they realize that they are queen less and need the cells drawn. And thirdly that the queen cups are given to the bees to polish before the larva are laid or grafted in the cells.
Patience is needed the bees some time take a while to polish the cells and draw the cells out before the queen will start laying. once you have young larva in the cells it is just a mater of pulling the cell bottom of the cell out and placing it in the bottom of the queen cup. No grafting needs to be done and the larva is undisturbed in it royal jelly. The issue is the starter accepting the cells some jump right on it, other times the # of rejected cells can be high whether it is cause the cells were not polished by the bees or lack of bees the proper age or lack of honey flow. There are so many variables that effect the success of queen rearing and as most find out requires resources, skills and commitment to be successful. To raise queens from your best hive can cause it to no longer be your best hive due to over management of the colony depending on the methods used. I bought a Jenter system and haven't used it the way it was designed for the last 25 years I found it easier and just as effective to graft directly in to the queen cells. But if grafting is a problem these system allows you to avoid having to do grafting.
