A smoker is a necessary tool in beekeeping, a safety precaution. Most people think that smokers calm the bees, this isn’t true. Smoke breaks the bees’ pheromones which is their way of communicating, so they get confused and try to get away from the smoke. This is helpful when you want to move bees off of a Box or Frame, and if the bees are attacking you or someone else the smoke will drive the bees away.