Given a choice between a bee suit and a smoke, I'll always choose the  
smoker.  Smoke is a natural part of the environment in which bees  evolved.  
Predators attacking a hive are also something bees to which they  have had to 
respond.  
 
Of the two, our counters and our infra-red imaging show that smoke  tends 
to suppress flight for a short period.  Banging a hive without smoke,  tends 
to produce disturbances that last much longer, any bee that stings  the 
beekeeper dies, and our behavioral research indicates that bees can 'learn'  to 
be aggressive, remember the intruder. 
 
Jerry
 
 

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