My dad has couple of bee hives and sometimes i help him ‘smoke’ them so he can harvest the honey. Why does ‘smoking’

Question: My dad has couple of bee hives and sometimes i help him 'smoke' them so he can harvest the honey. Why does 'smoking' them work??? From AnimeLvr7 & Ambee97! :)
- Keywords:
  bee
Asked by animelvr7 to Edd, Zara on 24 Jun 2011.
- Zara Gladman answered on 24 Jun 2011:
  
  Hi animalvr7! and ambee97!
  
  Wow I’m jealous that your dad has beehives… fancy sending some honey my way? I haven’t had lunch yet…. 😛
  
  As for your question, I wasn’t sure so I did a bit of reading and tried to find out for you! There is an interesting article here: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bee-smoker.htm
  
  Usually when a bee senses danger (i.e. your dad!), it releases chemicals called pheromones that warn the other bees to be on guard… and to prepare to fight and protect their hive!
  
  If you ‘smoke’ the hive, then the bees are smothered and can’t smell the pheromones any more…. so they won’t attack you. Clever!

Zara commented on 24 Jun 2011:

By the way, who is ‘Mr Johns’? I’m not very confidence about winning today… maybe he should have done it in my place, he seems very popular! 😉

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Zara commented on 24 Jun 2011:

*confident

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animelvr7 commented on 29 Jun 2011:

Mr Johns is our science teacher but sadly he will not be teaching us for a few weeks as he is in France one week, Zambia the other and the week he is back, we only have one lesson! Then it’s the summer holidays & when we come back we are Year Nines and doing our options and we may not have him any more!!! 🙁 Thank you for answering!!! 🙂 Xx

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Question: My dad has couple of bee hives and sometimes i help him 'smoke' them so he can harvest the honey. Why does 'smoking' them work??? From AnimeLvr7 & Ambee97! :)