I spent some time watching a commercial operator who has thousands of hives 
work with his bees when he was into the honey phase and not the pollinating 
phase of his operation. He even dropped by my place and checked out my 
hives and bees.  Anyway--bottom line--he uses very little smoke, just a 
little puff at the entrance--less than the puff of a cigarette smoker--and 
another little puff a foot above the top when he removes the cover, not 
even down into the hive, so virtually no smoke comes into contact with the 
open cells.
Bees have extremely sensitive olfactory systems. Even the fumes from a 
smoker that has gone out will cause them to react. 

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