Question: do you dilute your liquid smoke? 

Yes. It comes in small sachets of about a dessert spoon size which is diluted with about a quart of water.  I might get through 2 sachets in a year.

Question: Does the odor of liquid smoke penetrate the cluster as well as
does smoker smoke?

Apparently. Yesterday I opened three hives for examination for the first time this year.  In each case I gave the entrance a squirt before putting on my veil etc. thus giving it time to work. The sprayer then went back on my belt and stayed there until I was back at the car, ie I didn't need to spray the open hive and received no stings.  I don't wear gloves but put a small drop of oil of cloves on the back of one hand and rub it in with the other.

Question:  Does a spray of liquid smoke cause guard bees to turn around,
and other bees to disperse, as does smoker smoke?

I didn't notice any guards.  If I want to disperse bees so that I can more closely examine the brood they're hiding I gently pat them with the back of my hand.

Question:  Does liquid smoke initiate honey gorging?

There's very little liquid honey available for gorging so far; only solid ivy honey.  I didn't notice any gorging on the liquid honey that I did see.

Question: How long is the duration of effect of a light spray of liquid
smoke? 

Long enough to examine every comb in a brood box.  I don't wear a wrist watch as last year I noticed I was getting more stings on the hand with the watch than on the other, presumably due to accumulated sweat odours.  

Other observations.

A liquid smoke sprayer is less likely to fail than a smoker is to extinguish at the wrong time.  It doesn't stink your car and is much less likely to start a fire. A sprayer that has been previously used for cleaning your kitchen surfaces costs nothing, which is a lot cheaper than a smoker.  My bees are all local mongrels with a reasonable percentage of AMM in the area, probably greater than any other strain.

Chris

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