When a puff's not enuff....

[beemandan]

The girls meet you before you get anywhere near the hives. They’re obviously cranky. Itchin’ for trouble. It is clear that an attitude adjustment is needed. You put away that mamby-pamby smoker and light up BIG BERTHA.

[DJS]

Looks like it would hold a rick of wood and smoke for days.

[Joebee]

Bet you could smoke ribs with that!

[westernbeekeeper]

WOW! Where'd you get that machine?

[ken rice]

Actually looks like africanized smoker offered on some sites.

[beemandan]

This one is from Brazil. I'm told that it, or ones like it, are favored by South American beekeepers who typically work Africanized bees. Notice that it is a two handed operation. When you compress those bellows, it moves some smoke!

[JRG13]

Smoker or flamethrower??

[toekneepea]

Smoker or flamethrower??

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow...214842696.html

TP

[SRBrooks]

BEEMANDAN:

Do you think their attitude is seasonal? Are you going to requeen? Are you going to do nothing? How many hives do you have, and what is the general attitude?

I find this interesting.

Sondra

[beemandan]

I find this interesting.

It's not nearly as interesting as it looks Sondra. My bees, for the most part, are pretty easygoing. They can get a little cranky this time of year but in spring those same bees will be gentle. If I get a year round nasty hive, I'll requeen them, usually in the spring.

I borrowed the smoker to make the picture. It actually belongs to the UGA honey bee lab. It was a gift from a visiting South American entomologist. I thought it would be a fun thing to post.

I hope your bees are well behaved.

[cerezha]

BEEMANDAN:

Do you think their attitude is seasonal? Are you going to requeen? Are you going to do nothing? How many hives do you have, and what is the general attitude?

I think, you just need to show this monster to the bees and it will scare them to the death, hopefully it will move them toward queen replacement! Sergey

[cerezha]

On some video, I actually saw this monster in action. I do not remember details, but it was some beehive inspection in the jungles (look to me). It was my understanding that there were a "bee-specialist" and at least 5 "assistants" including "smoking-boy" - his function was just to carry the monstrosity (even bigger than on the picture) and smoke, smoke, smoke! The whole video was about "bee-specialist" walking through jungles and smoking-boy smoking everywhere very enthusiastically... it was very impressive (smoking). Since I saw that video at the beginning of my bee-hobby, smoking-boy impressed me so much that I decided to use sugary water instead smoke on my bees ... bees did not cooperate and heirloom smoker (Woodman) was reestablished at much smaller scale.

[Belewsboy]

I think I saw Tommy Chong with one of those.

[beemandan]

On some video, I actually saw this monster in action.

I saw some photos. The entire beeyard was a cloud of smoke. Like they were working the bees in a fog. From what I understand, working Africanized bees at lower elevations, you want every edge you can get.