>this perpetuates the fairy tale about "smoker smoke making
the bees think that there is a fire, so they prepare to abscond" when never
in the history of bees has a hive abandoned brood and hive due to a fire!

I'm curious about this.  I was under the impression that at least some
races of African bees will indeed abandon their hive and brood if they are
over smoked.  Is that not true?

What I do clearly observe is that when smoked, the house bees on the brood
quickly run to the ring of open nectar or honey at the edge of the brood,
and begin to tank up.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html