Speaking of him, a friend of mine whose observations I trust, as they seem unerringly accurate, told me he visited said beekeeper and observed his colonies in the fall. All of them were dinks, with nothing more than a prayer to carry them over. 


I have also been there,  They seem to wax and wane,  what is more disturbing to me is he seldom pulls honey.  His yields are little to nothing.   I asked him several times for queens to test,  to no avail.  Doesn’t have time to produce and sell queens with his day job.   Even though I advised the price for TF queens would be 200 each with no problem.


I will give him a lot of credit for helping people get started. And the efforts he puts to help beginners!


I do not understand your last post

  " a little smoke is less disruptive than not smokeing them......" 

Exactly. We are not comparing smoking or not smoking a colony, but rather examining the colony with or without smoke.


What I was trying to ask precisely was the possible effects of working them without any smoke,  I do this quite a bit.  Many times with no gear.  If I am doing a lot of hives and am suited up,  quite often the smoker is 4-5 pallets away. My question was and is, is that as disruptive as using smoke???  Normaly the bees are really quiet.  If they get moody I walk back and get the smoker.  But for a lot of work I find I can do without.  Just wondering if that sets them back also.

Charles

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