We don’t use smoke when we tend our hives. We never have and I don’t see any reason to start now. It disrupts the hive and can mask all kinds of odours that a beekeeper can use to figure out what’s happening in a hive.
It appears that part of our justification for being smoke-free is also inacurrate: “The perception that honeybees can escape an approaching wildfire by absconding in advance of the fire is so well entrenched that no thought appears to have been given to see that it is an utter fallacy.”
We would like to tell you about the remarkable people behind the South African honeybee conservation group Ujubee and share with you their latest findings on a behaviour of the honeybee …
Source: “It is said that smoke calms honeybees” | The Natural Beekeeping Trust