Bee Smokers

Beekeeping smokers are an essential tool for beekeepers. It was found that smoke pacifies bees. Smoke masks alarm pheromones that are released by guard bees and injured bees when beekeepers open the beehive. The colony's defensive response is interrupted and gives the beekeeper a window of opportunity to inspect and work on the hive. Smoke also initiates a feeding response in honeybees, an anticipation of possible hive abandonment due to fire.

It is widely said that smoke calms bees as honey bees get busy gorging on honey and do not get agitated and sting to defend their home as you open their hive with prior application of smoke.

Smoke is of limited use with a bee swarm because honeybee swarms have no honey stores to feed on, are less defensive as they have no home to defend and a fresh swarm would have fed well at the hive it left behind before parting to find a new home.

Smokepots are designed to generate smoke from the smoldering of various fuels like Hessian burlap fabric, pine needles, corrugated cardboard, paper egg cartons, dry rotten wood, pulped paper, uncoloured paper, compressed cotton, hay, untreated straw, dry grass, dried female hop flower containing the sedative lupulin, corn cobs, twine, fine wood chips, small twigs, dry leaves, sumac bobs, wood pellets or dried herbs.

The fuel in the bee smoker burner burns slowly due to the restricted amount of oxygen in the burning chamber. Each squeeze of the bellows feeds the smoldering fuel with fresh air which produces smoke.