Bee smoker

Due to its nutritional properties and excellent flavour, honey has been harvested for a long time. Initially, honey was poached from wild bees, over time beekeeping - the craft of breeding bees - developed from this primitive apiculture. In their work, beekeepers used tools specific to their trade. Among which was the bee smoker, a device composed of a cylindrical body with a nozzle and a bellows, used to calm the bees. The bee smoker was used during the honey harvest and for other work in the hives. Its operating principle was simple: a container inside the body was filled with fuel, such as tree punk, which when ignited and extinguished produced embers. The embers were kept burning by air being pumped into the device via a bellows, and the resulting smoke was discharged through a chimney opening at the front of the body. The beekeeper would point it to his desired location. The fumigated bees would calm down and move up the hive, and the beekeeper could safely perform his work. The industrially manufactured bee smokers of today differ little from the item featured in the ethnographic collection of the National Museum in Szczecin, which was produced using traditional craft methods. Both in the past and present, these have been essential pieces of apiary gear. Agnieszka Słowińska