> My question was and is, is that as disruptive as using smoke???

I don't think so. If you are working and they are not paying attention to you; that is, smoke is not needed -- that is probably the best scenario of all. If they are not paying attention because they are totally stupefied, that can't be good for them. 

There's a saying -- There are two ways to work bees: So slow they don't know you are there, or so fast they don't know you were there. 

I think we agree that too much smoke is bad, but getting the whole yard ticked off is worse. I used to run hundreds of hives by myself and sometimes when I took off honey the bees got so riled up they would sting anything that moved, like the ropes. Probably took them a week to get over it. But that was after the honey flow ended in August, nothing much else for them to do but fight.

PLB

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