As the popularity of keeping bees soars , it ’s only natural to question custom . It makes sense that newfangled beekeepers — those just discover about go along bees either from books , the cyberspace or forthwith from mentors — would challenge some fourth dimension - honor practices . ( If we did n’t , how would we ever grow ? ) One question I often see bounced around in my local bee gild is rather rudimentary , but it never fails to ignite ( pun intended ) the ire of some old schoolbeeks : Is it possible to supervise an apiary without the use of fume ?
The contender , of course , are referring to the consumption of lucre syrup to pull off Colony , rather than sens .
How Smoke Works
Smoke has been used for thousands of years by culture around the mankind to manage and glean honey from both savage and domestic honeybee colonies . Smoke is understood to dissemble the pheromones given off by all bees , their communication life - lineage . Without this ability to pass and read and interpret each other ’s alarm pheromones ( which smell like banana to the human olfactory organ , by the bye ) , the bee are rendered passive and are more likely to tolerate having a beekeeper nearby . This allows the beekeeper to conduct important inspection , check on the queen , rearrange supers , feed the bee if necessary and , of course , harvest home beloved ( among many , many other of import duty ) .
Apis mellifera instinctively move aside from smoke , so the beekeeper can more easily pull wires the member of the colony and risk few injury to the bee . For instance , simply blowing smoke on the top of the physical body will apace crystalize the inning of bees . This is a handy joke when putting superintendent back together if you do n’t want to squish ( and injure or kill ) your bee . Just as significant as the reduced risk to the bees is the reduce risk of infection to the apiarist : The use of fume drastically lowers the prospect of getting stung because those alarum pheromones are n’t flying around , making your bees jumpy . Kristina Mercedes Urquhart
How Sugar Syrup Works
Sugar syrup , on the other hand , is used by making the concoction ( usually 1:1 proportion of water to sugar ) , placing it in a nebuliser bottleful and spraying it directly onto the bees once in the beehive . While traditionally , beekeepers using smoke might blow a puff or two into the entrance of the hive to start “ calming ” the bees down , beekeeper using sugar syrup must first give the beehive to put on it . This already puts the sirup - using apiarist at a disadvantage .
The sugar sirup coats the bees , and they work on furiously to clean themselves and each other . This buys some time for the apiarist to conduct his or her review while giving the bee something to do . However , sticky bees can quickly become agitated — and they can still conduct consternation pheromones .
Syrup - surface bees are not easily moved or manipulated , so it ’s often hard to close up a beehive once the review is complete without smash bee . ( It ’s of import to remark that the wide-eyed act of crushing a bee release an alarm pheromone . The same enforce to a bee who has recently prick ) . The greatest disadvantage to using sugar syrup is that it ’s unlikely a beekeeper will be able to spray every single bee , thereby allow for some bees untenanted and potentially angered by the beekeeper ’s presence .
So What Should You Do?
The consensus among experient beekeepers is that while sugar syrup may work out for the inspection of a modest , teachable colony once in awhile , it ’s best reserved for enjoyment on bundle and swarms . At metre of dearth ( picayune to no blossom flower ) , some apiarist like to usebothsugar syrup and smoke , offering a bite to athirst bee while tranquillise them for an review . For serioushive inspections , though , or while inspecting multiple hive in a big apiary , have a properly lit smoking carriage at the ready . If you do choose to use refined sugar syrup as your first tool for any review , great or diminished , having a lit smoker stand up by just in case is a wise move .
Kristina Mercedes Urquhart
