The first step towards failiure

The first stage in queen rearing is to collect or prepare the larvae that will become the queens.
The traditional way of doing this is to take a frame of open brood from the hive.

You then have to select larvae that are the right age, under 3 days.
You then use something called a grafting tool to extract the larvae from the comb with the little puddle of royal jelly the larvae has around it.

The tool has a spring mechanism which pushes the larvae off the tool into something called a queen cup.
The chances of me doing this sucessfully is in the region of less than the square root of f....a....

So the way I intend doing is is to firstly use what is known as a Nicot cage. This is a plastic cassette thats mounted in a brood frame.
The front and back have removable plastic covers and inside the cassette are a series of holes.

The idea is that the queen is put in the front of the cassette and the lid put on, trapping her inside. She then lays her eggs in the holes in the cassette that mimic the normal comb.
What she doesn't know is on the reverse of the cassette the holes end in brown plastic cups which act as a receptacle for the eggs which are taken away for the next stage. At which point she is released back into the hive.

The front lid has slots in it like the queen excluder allowing the worker bees to come and go but not allow the queen to get out of the cassette.

I have decided to use one of the new queens that came in one of the nucs as she is marked so easily found [hopefully] and also she is young and seems to be a good layer.
But before this can all happen the cassette has to be cleaned by the bees so the queen accepts it and is happy to lay in it. Its put in the hive with the front cover removed for a few days for them to clean.
The cassette was put in the hive today [23rd June] and weather permitting, I will get the queen into it on Sunday or Monday.