My main goal is to not get stung! Also you only go into the hives every few weeks so it’s not a major disruption. Also they only temporarily abandon the hive. They check on it later to see if it made it and then keep on living in it.

[–] kattfisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 week ago

Never found even harvesting to require more than the occasional puff of smoke. But we had Buckfast, and made sure to replace the queen of any aggressive colony. Maybe you have more aggressive breeds.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For jarred honey with comb in it, how does that affect the hive?

[–] Leeks@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

Bee keepers move comb in and out of the hive frequently during the producing seasons. If they just cut the caps (top layer of wax) off the honeycomb, drain it, and then put the comb back in the hive, the bees have to use less energy to make comb, so they make more honey. If you put an “empty frame” (a spot with no honeycomb already on it) it takes the bees a lot more energy to make the comb so there is less honey. So it’s a trade off from the bee keepers’ perspective.