Don’t Blow Smoke During Assimilation

At the beginning of spring, beekeepers start assessing the health of their hive.  For some, this first peek inside the hive presents a view that can only be described as utter devastation, a total loss.  The reasons for hive death are plentiful and outnumber the reasons why they survive.  Needless to say, a beekeeper looks for a strong work crew at winters end so the bees can start their outdoor duties as the warmth of the spring sun finally arrives.   

The fact the hive doesn’t survive over the winter leaves a beekeeper with few options other than to replace their hive with a new package of bees, an “installation”, an acquisition. 

Receiving a new bee package is quite thrilling.  A cluster of what you hope will be young, enthusiastic workers, a new leader (the queen) and a few drones as an insurance policy should the unspeakable happen.  It’s a fresh start, and there will be a lot of activity to monitor in the preceding months as the hive settles into their respective duties.

You will never find two Beekeepers who agree on everything, but there are a few smart rules most beekeepers follow, with few exceptions.  (1) Wear a veil and (2) have your smoker ready. 

The smoke causes a distraction in the hive; it notifies the hive you are there and evokes a sense of panic that sends the bees into the hive to start gorging themselves in preparation to abandon the hive, should that smoke turn to fire.   It essentially redirects their attention to the smoke, and not the beekeeper.

The bees in the new package are strangers to one another.  They have just traveled hundreds of miles, collected by being shaken from various hives.  A new queen is placed amongst them and off they are to meet their new caretaker.  The close proximity of the bees will help ensure the queen’s pheromones are distributed amongst the cluster, but until the scent is distributed amongst the group and a structure is provided for them to begin their work, the package is vulnerable. 

The bees are homeless and unsettled.  Like any established corporation having developed a strong cultural identity around a unifying mission or vision, the workers connect to and work for the organization.   They crave a home office, an executive leadership team who can move an organization, rather than merely speak to it.

Simply put: a new employee into an organization needs to become a part of their new organization, or the organization risks losing them.   They fail or flee, its true for the bee.

Here’s a rule breaker: Don’t use a smoke during a bee installation.  When you introduce the bee’s into the hive, think of smoke as anti-assimilation.  The new package is homeless and prone to drifting when installed; the introduction to anything other than the purest communication of the hive, the queen’s pheromones is just proverbial smoke.   The introduction of smoke could have devastating effects, scattering the workers, sending them off to search for a landing spot nowhere near the intended hive. 

Do I smell corporate smoke?  Cut through the corporate smoke by offering operational and organizational transparency.   Create an on-boarding process that provides clarity in mission, articulate corporate priorities and strategy, and explicitly define how the new employee will be successful in their structure.  Unveil and put away the smoker.