Smoke and Sugar

Bees in general are pretty laid back.  They just want to make honey.  If you don't get in the way of this process you can live in harmony with them.  As a beekeeper you do need to see how things are going on in the hive and during the summer you have to open the hive about once a week to see how things are progressing.   This pretty much pisses them off and they want to sting  you.  To settle them down you 'smoke them'.  We use a smoker to do this.  When they smell or sense smoke nearby they think forest fire and they gorge themselves on honey ready to take flight or something like that.  It reminds me of my dad after a big meal and he is sitting in his recliner relaxing and digesting.  It's a great time to ask for money or the car or tell him of the new dent in the fender.  In any case the bees are more concerned about eating than us invading the hive.

So the following is a video on the smoker and smoking the bees.

Bees have a common problem in the US and that is the varroa mite.  This little blood sucker comes into a hive and attaches to bees and starts to recreate.  Not a great thing for the bee or the hive.  The way to reduce the infestation is to 'sugar' the bees.  We take powered sugar and dust the bees.   They get really angry when you do this but this helps them to reduce the mite problem.

When the bees are covered with sugar they start to clean each other off by eating the sugar.  Any mites that are on the bees are then pushed off or slip off most of the bees.  They fall to the bottom of the hive and die in a heap of sucrose.  Here is a short video of sugaring the bees.