luke bryan smoking hives at sundown

lucas bryan smoking hives at sun down.  sometimes bee keepers do use smoke.  it's an effective way to keep bees in their hives when you move them.  the sun isn't quite down and it's close to 60 degrees.  bees can't see in the dark and will fly so long as the temperature is above 50 degrees.  in this photo brandon woodland is somewhere off to the left of the image on a fork lift loading hives onto his truck.  a major part of bee keeping is moving the hives around.  even once they are in california they get moved at least four times over the course of three months.  each hive.  and there are 2,500 of them.  and it can only be done at night when all the bees are clustered in their hives.