this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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don't beekeepers use smoke or some such?
Yup. It simulates a forest fire and encourages them to gorge themselves on honey and leave the hive. They get less protective of the hive (because they think it is doomed) which makes it easier to work. They will check back in under an hour to see if the hive made it, and if so, will regurgitate the honey back and continue on with their day.
Fun additional bee fact! Bee hives have personalities and each hive has a different one! Some hives are very easy going and have no problems being worked. Other hives don’t like to be touched and will get defensive quickly. When working hives, one of the things you look for is bees lining up on the edge of a frame staring you down. If you see that, hit them with some more smoke else you are about to be stung!
Bees navigate using the sun. It doesn’t really seem that they make a map, but more seem to know where they are by the process of directions that got them there. When they return to the hive they just reverse the way they got there. If you stand in front of the entrance to a bee hive for a few minutes then turn around to face away from the hive, you will see a swarm of bees flying in a holding pattern waiting for you to move so they can return. Once you move the entrance to the hive gets really busy. They don’t seem to know to go around you, they just wait till the path is clear!
Here’s another for the road: mites are a big problem for bees. They latch on to the bees and the bees don’t feel them. One way bee keepers can encourage bees to clean themselves and knock off the mites is by covering the bees in powdered sugar! This makes it look like there are a bunch of powder white bees flying around for a while.
Your comment prompted me to recall a great movie, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Bees_(film)
This sounds strange. You really don't want to make them abandon the hive. You want to disrupt the hive as little as possible.
My main goal is to not get stung! Also you only go into the hives every few weeks so it’s not a major disruption. Also they only temporarily abandon the hive. They check on it later to see if it made it and then keep on living in it.
For jarred honey with comb in it, how does that affect the hive?
Bee keepers move comb in and out of the hive frequently during the producing seasons. If they just cut the caps (top layer of wax) off the honeycomb, drain it, and then put the comb back in the hive, the bees have to use less energy to make comb, so they make more honey. If you put an “empty frame” (a spot with no honeycomb already on it) it takes the bees a lot more energy to make the comb so there is less honey. So it’s a trade off from the bee keepers’ perspective.
Thanks! TIL.
Never found even harvesting to require more than the occasional puff of smoke. But we had Buckfast, and made sure to replace the queen of any aggressive colony. Maybe you have more aggressive breeds.
Yeah the Russians are a little meaner, but do better with the mites and winter. The Italians are much easier to work, but require a lot more “hand holding”. Either way I normally knock with some smoke at the entrance/through the screened bottom for 2-3 puffs, then when I crack the top or move off a super, add a puff at the location. If I’m working slow and see them start staring me down, they get a little more.
I work bare handed because gloves loose too much dexterity, but that also gives them a giant target.
They stay in the hive if it's not hot iirc
Yup, if it’s cold they stay inside the hive and ball up! They vibrate against each other to make heat and stay warm.
Yea tobacco smoke I think but want to say they were being stopped for that n9t sure.
I don't believe they'd use tobacco, as nicotine is especially toxic to insects (and has a long history of being used as an insecticide).
Beekeepers burn paper, woodchips, or really anything that burns well that they have on hand (that isn't toxic). Source: Have used smoker while handling beehives.
That makes sense after reading up more I believe I'm wrong I feel like I'd heard that they used nicotine and hadn't fully researched and took it at face value. Thabks for the information!!
Looking around there does seem to be people who use tobacco. I guess poisoning the bees probably makes them more docile 😅 Still a bad idea though
Muh profitsis probably.