I base my choice not on "natural beekeeping" methods - a contradiction in terms in my view - but based on convenience and effectiveness coupled with need.
Bees tend to dislike cold rain... dinosaur pee was probably lukewarm :-)
I was actually paraphrasing one of my favourite sayings.
When people start complaining about the rain I often point out that it never rains in a bar.
actually it is not unknown ..... been paddling before now amongst the beer barrels
It’s a good job that evolution goes back millions of years because my bees have never seen a forest let alone one on fire; maybe a heath fire might jog their memories.
Seriously though I have often wondered about the effect of smoke on unsealed honey and the risk of it being tainted. I use cardboard and clean hessian in my smoker but maybe there’s someone out there burning pretty toxic stuff.
Oops, Careful. You mentioned that 'P' word again.
I collect bags of leaves and store them in a shed until they are well dried.
You get a great smell of forest fire from the smoker.
I use a bit of paper and cardboard to start it off.
I'm still working my way through a bag of bee tobacco my mother in law bought me from Thornes 3 years ago. Odd Christmas present, esp as she also bought me 2 jars honey.
I smoke my bees. I tried using water spray, but then felt guilty because I know they don't like getting wet.
There are a things about the pheromone blocking effects of smoke that I don't fully understand. I've read an extract from a study that seems to show that smoke (and 'floral odor') stops bees from communicating, with the effects wearing off in about 20 minutes. http://www.springerlink.com/content/v172010112682748/
I've also read, seen pictures http://scientificbeekeeping.com/the-...r-pool-part-1/, and also seen for myself that bees go and feed themselves as soon as they get a whiff of smoke, but then they hang around and do nothing much. It seems a bit counter-productive, in evolutionary terms, because it looks as if, if they were surrounded by smoke, that they'd sit there and do nothing instead of making a swift exit to save the colony from being burned.
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