Smoking a swarm

[SixFooter]

Is there any point in smoking a swarm when collecting it?
I tend to get the bees into a box and then smoke where they were to mask the remnant pheremones.
If smoking works by getting bees to fill up on honey, surely smoking a swarm is pointless.

 

[VEG]

I use water spray, only ever used smoke once to get them to move up into box placed above.

 

[BeeNice]

I only smoke a bees if they need to be driven up into a collecting box, from a difficult place where the collecting box needs to be above. But just enough to start them moving, like driving cattle. I sometimes use it to clear groups setting up in a cluster where I took the swarm from. Its an aid if you need it.
steven

 

[Poly Hive]

May work to move them up and often does not.

PH

 

[Swarm]

Had one swarm in a pyracantha spread over a number of branches, a right web of thorns. I had to smoke these quite heavily to get them to move up into the box, all they wanted to do was reassemble on another clump of thorns. They moved eventually but it was a long job.

 

[Heather]

I only smoke their original site after I have boxed them,to remove the smell of the queen etc and so avoid stragglers returning to where they had been clustered.

 

[SixFooter]

I only smoke their original site after I have boxed them,to remove the smell of the queen etc and so avoid stragglers returning to where they had been clustered.

Yes. Thats what I do. I also use a water spray to hurry them up when they are marching into the box.

 

[itma]

...
If smoking works by getting bees to fill up on honey, surely smoking a swarm is pointless.

Yes, that is how it pacifies before an inspection.
And yes, smoking to pacify a swarm is pointless and unnecessary - for that reason.

But there are other uses for smoke - like the way its used to drive bees off the box edges before reassembly. You could use it OK like that with a swarm.

 

[Moggs]

Swarms have bee bellies full of honey and bees with nothing to defend so the use of smoke for settling seems pointless as they are likely to be very docile (unless caught out in the rain for a good while). I may smoke the old site to shift any stragglers but avoid smoking the mass as queen pheromone is more important than the smell of smouldering shavings.

 

[MuswellMetro]

May work to move them up and often does not.

PH

agree,they ofton just move off to another tree

i never use smoke, though i have seen it done to move them up....and they absconded within an hour

 

[BeeNice]

May work to move them up and often does not.

Does work, just to get them moving, but only in certain situations. As I said an aid if needed, each swarm is in a different state ie. newly settlered, been in place awhile, been in place for days. You have to judge it as you find it.
cheers
Steven

 

[BeeNice]

i never use smoke, though i have seen it done to move them up....and they absconded within an hour

I had a swarm last week that had been in place for 4 wet days, without smoke got them into a skep, transfered to a 6 frame nuc box, next day all outside again in the rain. With another nuc box over the top I smoked them up and they settled in the new box. As said many times before 'bees don't read the books', each situation is different you can't go with just the one idea that you hope will work.
cheers
Steven

 

[YorkshireBees]

I have only generally used smoke to mask the scent of the swarm resting place after getting the majority into a box. (As per other answers.)

Having said that I did smoke them to drive them up into a Nuc earlier this year and it worked quite well once they found the nuc and started to fan.