Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
kitchen knives and screwdrivers and, on one occasion, I tried a car key and had to walk
home. At this stage you must go to the shop and buy more hive tools.
Fig. 14.
Two types of hive tool
The smoker
There are loads of theories as to why smoke calms down bees but it does seem that
the smoke in some way affects the bees' sensory mechanisms. It sometimes works the
other way round, however - using a great deal of smoke on already-angry bees can
make things worse. My Spanish bees (
Apis mellifera iberica
) were usually so savage
that, unless blasts of flame were coming out of the smoker, it didn't seem to make any
difference. In fact, if anything, they became more enraged. Usually, though, a few puffs
of smoke at the hive entrance will keep most bees calm because it induces them to gorge
themselves with honey. Then, when removing each box, a few puffs along the top of the
frames will keep the bees' heads down. In New Zealand, however, it takes so much to
get my Italian bees worked up that I hardly use any smoke at all.
