Thanks to all for the great responses to my original question.  I
inadvertently began a *smoker debate* with my post.  The main reason I
have not been using a smoker is time.  I have two small children and a
stay-at-home wife who like to see me when I am not working my crazy swing
shifts, so when I go to do inspections, I try to save as much time as
possible.  Leaving the smoker home seemed to be the best bet on saving
time.  I had previously had very little *need* for it anyway, as my hives
were generally very docile as long as I worked them in sunny weather
(Italians, by the way).
 
Also puzzling to me is that this behavior just cropped up after I split
the hive a few weeks ago.  They were just as docile as the other hive,
which I also split, until then.  I now have 4 hives and all are still
docile except this one.  She *is* however the only queen to remain of the
original two I started with.  The other queen died or was killed and the
queens from the two queen cells suffered the same demise.  I had to buy
three new queens to replace them.
 
Thanks again, everyone!  Any more input?
 
Steve Creasy-                        (\
Maryville, Tennessee USA    {|||8-
Proverbs 24:13,25:16             (/