In a recent posting David Eyre mentioned the use of liquid smoke when
working nucs. This is our first year using liquid smoke while making up
mating nucs. I must say, it seems to work real well. You appear to be able
to get a few more adult bees to stay on the frames. (we don't stock our nucs
with bulk bees). This under some conditions has been a problem in the past.
My question is - does anybody have experience using liquid smoke while
planting cells? Later in the season we don't have any problem with cell
acceptance but sometimes the first early planting could be better. Over the
years we tried lots of different things with no apparent results.
I should mention that we put a little bit of wintergreen oil in our "smoke".

Looking forward to any replies,

Bill Russell
Eustis, Fl.  USA