Smoking is a technique used by beekeepers when extracting the combs to harvest the honey produced by the bees and stored in the hives or when they need to handle the insects. To avoid a group attack by bees defending their territory and their production, beekeepers spray the hive with natural smoke from the combustion of wood or other vegetation in order to make the bees believe that a fire has started in the hive. Faced with this emergency situation, the bees gorge themselves on honey, crowd around the queen, and pay no attention to the beekeeper, who can then remove the frames and combs.