The Smoker is the number one tool needed my all bee-keepers. A basic crowbar or a knife can replace a hive tool to break apart the bee-hives. But nothing can replace smoke. To understand why you have to understand how honey bees communicate.
You may have heard of the waggle dance; this is a demonstration of the bees communicating thought vibrations. The other way honey bees communicate is though smells, or pheromones. We can’t do anything other than work a colony smoothly to reduces the vibrations. And the smoke dilutes the alarm pheromones put out by the bees while you are working them. Smoke it like quickly putting wool over the eyes of all inhabitants of a building through which you are about to rummage, or rob maybe even rob.
You want smoke to always be present but never over powering, never too over powering. A judicious amount of smoke at all times. What that actually means is a gut feeling you get learn after working with bees for a while. In future videos I will try to want is meant by “a judicious” amount. Until than you have to get the think lite and I have made a short video to learn how to do just that. This information is brought to you through the sale of honey, candles, and beekeeping equipment. Please remember use during the holiday season or when you are starting in the hobby of keeping bees.