liquid smoke and robbing

[paddlebee]

Greetings all fellow beekeepers out there. I have a few questions regarding the use of liquid smoke in haulting the robbing process. I was wondering what the difference was between regular liquid smoke found in the grocery store and liquid BEE smoke marketed by retailers. Also, the book where i found this possible solution states just to spray the entrance and the robbing will hault instantly, well, how much am I supposed to spray? Finally it says to dilute the concentrate, would I also need to dilute the standard liquid smoke if I decided to go that route and to what degree? Thanks for taking the time to read!!!

[Michael Bush]

>I have a few questions regarding the use of liquid smoke in haulting the robbing process.

I have not heard that it would work against robbing. Was this in an ad? It's an interesting concept.

>I was wondering what the difference was between regular liquid smoke found in the grocery store and liquid BEE smoke marketed by retailers.

Not much I don't think, but the stuff you buy for bees come with instructions on how much to dilute it.

>Also, the book where i found this possible solution states just to spray the entrance and the robbing will hault instantly, well, how much am I supposed to spray?

I've never heard of it working on robbing. I always figured if the hive smelled too much like smoke the bees would get desensitized to the smell and it wouldn't work anymore. I have used the liquid smoke instead of smoke for calming a hive, but wasn't that impressed. If I was to try it I wouldn't spray much because it's very strong stuff. The only really nice thing about liquid smoke for me is when the smoker has gone out and I want some smoke NOW.

>Finally it says to dilute the concentrate, would I also need to dilute the standard liquid smoke if I decided to go that route and to what degree?

I would guess that it's all similar concentration and would dilute the stuff from the grocery store the same as the other. I doubt that the exact dilution matters much anyway. It's mostly a matter of making it less strong. If you really watered it down a lot you could use more of it for calming and the water has a tendancy to calm them a bit also. For stopping robbing I'm assuming they are just using it for a cover smell so the honey smell isn't obvious.

I am curious if anyone has used it to prevent robbing and how well it worked.