NICOT Queen Rearing: The Non-Grafting Method for Raising Local Queens Paperback – November 24, 2013

This would be a 4 or 5 STAR review if not for two things, one annoying and the other a structural issue related to learning. I find the book on second reading much more useful, mainly because I have coupled it with an inexpensive video produced by The Bee Works. You can preview the video listed in the catalog on their web site at www.beeworks.com. The annoyance - poor editing! Who at Amazon's Kindle group allowed a book to go to "e-press" with words and phrases out of order? For the most part the out-of-order phrases are easily rearranged by the reader and put into proper context. A few however are really scrambled and can't easily be reassembled. The more critical problem for me is the organization of the text. Gillard spends a fair amount of time on the philosophy of beekeepers and it's importance. No argument from me but the book and reader/student would be better served if he would bring it to a close and make a clean break before heading to the technique. Breaking the book into appropriately titled chapters would be very helpful. Of course a few more pictures would improve some of the sections on technique. The use of pictures is almost entirely held back until the last section for some reason. The video mentioned above made the book more useful because the technique is covered well and in exact order, very closely matching this book. Add the two together, use some patience in reading and you have all five stars!

We bought the Nicot and 10 specially designed double occupancy queen mating nucs for my 13 year old son as he was interested in queen rearing. Because the Nicot doesn't require grafting, I thought it would be an easy way for him to get into it.By the time Fall came around, I realized our plan of making and selling 20 queens every 4-6 weeks was probably a little too optimistic. The instructions that came with the system were just not detailed enough to be much good.Already being a fan of Grant Gillard's other beekeeping books, I was elated to see that he had published on the Nicot system. In his typical pastoral style, Grant takes you through the ups and downs of the Nicot system and the incite and experience he shares in this book is invaluable.I really learned some things that I think will help me get the most out of the Nicot. We are now restarting our queen rearing using Grant's instructions. I am hoping we see better results.I ordered the Kindle version and there were a few hic-ups in how it displayed on my Kindle. I am not sure what caused it, but a few of the sentences between pages were a bit out of place and the wording rearranged. Though a minor inconvenience, I'm not docking any points.

In spite of the poor grammar and lack of professional editing, the author imparts some very unique and highly specialized knowledge not available elsewhere. Having followed a short version of this manuscript posted online by Gillard a few years ago, I successfully raised 39 queen cells with my first try! Now I'm back for more and greatly appreciate the expanded instructions that leave no questions unanswered. Gillard covers everything the beekeeper needs to know to be successful. I will recommend this book to all my beekeeping friends.

I have used this method before with little success. After reading this book I discovered that i left out a lot of detail. It is late November and I can't wait for spring to get here to try this out the right way. I am 75 years old and my hands are not steady enough graft and I am running around 30 colonies and can't get good queens locally. Just third of paying $25 to $30 dollars plus shipping for no Good southern queens. I am from East Tennessee by the way.

Like all of his books I have read, Gillard repeats himself and parts of it needs some editing BUT after wading through about one third it becomes clear why he repeats himself. It sears itself into your memory. It's also increasingly interesting and informative the further you get in. The tricks and tips provided from his experience of failure were incredibly valuable to me. Only missed 5 stars by a fraction.

The Nicot System is for those who can’t or refuse to learn the simple technique of Grafting young larvae to make queen bees. In reality, you need the proper magnificationnofcrwader glasses from the dollar store, and whichever Grafting tool works for you. The Nicot System has lots of problems and you would need to do lots of work to have any results. I got the online version of this book to help my friend figure out how to make it work. My belief is that you can’t make it work. I do use all the other components of the Nicot/Jenter System in my queen rearing because I often have to let them hatch before placing my queens, so need the cell protection cages. The downside of this book is that it is mostly handwaving about non-relevant bee isms, but very little content. Just tell me if this crazy system can work for my friend who doesn’t like to graft. He gave up trying. I like Grafting, so Nicot System is not on my radar. I would suggest you don’t use the Nicot System. Period.

I will be first following Grant's strategies later this spring. The book ought to be a big help in making the Nicot system productive. My complaints about the book focus not so much with beekeeping content, but rather a need for heavy editing. My hope is that I haven't missed too much by skimming the first part of the book that is setting the reader up to pay attention to the second part. There is knowledge here; unfortunately it takes some work to get to it.

I was first introduced to the Nicot method of queen rearing via the excellent beekeeping DVD series put out by The Bee Works (David Eyre). David explains the method very well, but I like to research things thoroughly, and so Pastor Gillard's book was a logical acquisition. While I agree the large type face is a bit annoying, I got used to it quickly and it gave me no trouble at all. And I came to enjoy Gillard's careful and carefully constructed repetition method of teaching technique. He first gives you a basic outline of the theory at hand, then a more fleshed out version, and finally a completely detailed exposition. As he does this, he explains not just what he does, but WHY. I find that most informative, and reassuring (you get so much strange advice as a noob beekeeper, if somebody explains why they think what they do, you can make better decisions on what advice to use). Gillard's writing is clear and chatty, very friendly and engaging. I liked this book so much, I also bought his "Tons of Honey" book, which is very useful and informative.

Great book for the non grafting queen breeder, as I am, I use the Jenter queen rearing system but the Nicot system and method described in this book transferred to my system perfectly and to the letter. I struggled with my Jenter Kit for two seasons but after reading this book (4 times) I raised 23 beautiful mated queens from 40 lava transferred to cell builders and then 29 queens transferred to mating nucs.This book was the making of me as a beekeeper, it gave me the freedom of self-reliance and the ability to select only the very best queens for my hives.THANK YOU GRANT.

I’m on page 134 , one third through, and have not learned one thing about nicot. Just all about your own reasons of rearing queens and more psychology and personal development. Not much help to a serious beekeeper about the Nicot method.Unfortunately the author is more interested to educate the reader in general beekeeping, rather than coming to the point that is suggested by its title. Was it not about the Nicot system of queen rearing?By page 134 I have seen hardly a mention of it, and sure no advice.So far it’s equaling a soap opera to those who seek wisdom and knowledge.

This is a decent book but if you are wanting to read about how to use the Nicot system, you should skip the first 167 pages of this 318 page book. The first 167 pages are not helpful in understanding the process in using the Nicot system successfully.

Read the book, followed the instructions, ant it worked. Worth the money.