Just lightly press the back of your hand against the bees for a moment and they will move alowing you to see into the cells or to break up a large cluster of bees.
Or you can just blow on the part of the frame you want to look at and the bees will move away.
I have over 5 or 6 smokers two of them are really nice and made of copper, my favorite one has a domed top.
Still I rarely use them, maybee late in the fall, mostly I fire them up when I give beekeeping lectures to school children .
The best use i've heard for a smoker is that a beekeepers kids put it on the back of their bicycle and playing cards that make sounds on the spokes so they can pretend they are riding a motor bike
Man I feel sad for you guys that are still smóking, don´t you know its bad for you?
Most of my hives have buckfast bees, or buckfast type bees (not island mated) they are nice calm bees to work with. I also have carnica/krainer bees, they are also calm in good weather, but not late in the evening or bad weather.
I had the local paper in my beeyard and we had a hive open for 4 hrs while I showed them all about bees, found the Queen, watched a worker bee crawl out of it´s cell.
After 4 hours I closed up the hive, under the whole time with no roof and pulling frames turning and looking the bees flew out of the normal hive entrance!
We later use this hive for Queen breeding.
Ok, I always wear a bee suit , I get stung about 10-15 times a year, mostly on my forearms, beecause my bee gloves don't have long sleeves, and they get me through one layer of cloth when they get caught in excess twisted fabrik, not real stings with an attached venom sack.
There are nice workable kind bees so why settle for the spawn of the devil :'(
The multi hive tool brush is really Sharp so I'm probably going to dull the edges a bit
mvh Edward
