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More bees with a Posh Address

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Interesting, I guess it goes nicely hand in hand with urban farming. :)

After lifting the wooden cover from each hive, Cote immediately doused it with smoke.

"The smoke makes the bees a bit more docile," he said. "It calms them a bit. It also distracts them."
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Isn't smoking your bees one of the things most bee-keepers try to avoid?
 
Wijnand said:
Isn't smoking your bees one of the things most bee-keepers try to avoid?
Click to expand...

According to the beekeeper I assisted one honey-gathering day, the smoke can produce some off-flavors in the honey. I'm a bit skeptical about that idea -- the honey itself is protected from the smoke by a layer of beeswax that caps each cell in the honeycomb. (And that layer of wax is cut off with a hotknife to expose the honey underneath for extraction.)

As it was, the beekeeper I worked with had a new spray that smelled like chemical-fake cherries. He sprayed a few squirts on the underside of the hive lid, let it sit for about 20 seconds, and removed it. The bees had all but vacated the top level of the hive.
 
Smoking is a tried and true tool of beekeeping. Done right, it calms the bees and makes them more concerned with eating than whatever you're doing. Obviously, it shouldn't be done with chemically things, just basic wood/newspaper/pine needles, etc. The theory is that it makes the bees think there's a nearby fire, so they get ready to leave (by stocking up on honey) if it gets too close. Since they never actually get a threat of fire, they don't actually leave, just eat well for a little while.

The chemical applied to the lid is not actually used for calming bees. Usually, you would use a chemical like that on a fume board to drive all the bees out of a section of the hive to harvest the honey. That is not the same as a regular maintenance tool like smoking. There's no need to drive them all away for an inspection. (And as far as I know, normal smoking methods don't drive bees away. If you smoke them that badly, you might as well give up on your hive because they're not likely to return.)
 
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