Ruth Said:

The assumption that the bee actively flew into the "smoker" is groundless,
and probably also utterly misleading, because it obscures the effects of the
physics of fires.

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Sorry, Ruth, but I have to disagree with your otherwise excellent analysis
of the "Suicide bee" incident.  The smoker was sitting alone on the tailgate
of my truck, not moving.  The bee was overing about 8 inches above the
smoker spout for a few seconds, then quite deliberately dove into the smoke
spout.  No amount of fire related physics could account for this.  The bee
was totally in control of its actions.

After some thought on this, here is my hypothesis:

There was some honey on the outside of the smoker from several days
previous.  The guard bee, having been alerted by my prior hive
manipulations, smelled the honey, and investigated.  When she hovered over
the smoker, she was irritated by the heat and smoke, and, perceiving threat
to the hive, tried to sting the offending smoker, diving into the dark "eye"
of the smoker, as Aaron has suggested.  End of guard bee.


Regards,

Todd.

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