Chapter Six

I have casually referred to doing things in the hive, such as placing boards in position and taking off supers as if the bees accepted that sort of thing without protest. Sometimes they do, but usually at some point during the manipulation they become rather cross. They register growing anger by a rise in the note of their buzzing, a change that bee keepers very soon become quick to detect.

The most usual method of dealing with rising anger in the hive is with a "smoker". The smoke is generated in the hand held article with fuel in a drum and bellows attached to the side to direct a draught of air on to the glowing fuel. Puffing with the bellows also puffs the resulting smoke out of a funnel on to the bees. The fuel consists of corrigated cardboard that smoulders very well when going properly.

The effect of the smoke is to send the bees hurrying to collect a load of honey from the nearest cell, and just as with a swarm, the effect of a full load is to make them benign and the whole tenor of their activity is toned down. The bee keeper can then get on with his job.

However, the respite does not last long. The smoker must be kept going and, preferably the work in the hive should not be prolonged. Smokers are the most infuriating of machines. Just when most needed they are found to be hardly alight and disaster is only averted by frenzied puffing of the maddening thing. The quality of the cardboard fuel varies considerably. The best will glow quietly when standing at hands reach ready for use. The worst needs constant attention. Even the best fuel will burn through faster than the operator expects causing panic (Just when there is quite enough panic anyway). It is all too easy to get absorbed by the job and neglect to puff the smoker occasionally.

The ideal solution to the problem is to have a willing and well trained helper. One who will keep the smoker going and always have it ready when needed, who will run for the items of equipment when required and tell the bee keeper where he or she has left the hive tool when it gets lost. A hive tool is a jemmy-like article for prizing apart hive components that the bees have stuck together. Helpers tend to ask questions which is a good sign, even if the bee-keeper does not know the answer, although really good helpers exercise a high degree of tact in that situation. Really good helpers are not very common.

There are other methods of controlling angry bees but they involve chemicals and are more for the professional bee-keeper than the cottage garden operator. I have never used them and so am not in a position to comment.

In my last chapter I shall consider some of the philosophical questions that arise from bee-keeping.

Chapter Seven