That's good advice Prestonpaul and another thing Mek...learn to talk to your bees, cos if you're calm, then more than likely they'll be calm. I rarely use any smoke these days. The only time I use it is if the girls are a little "pissy" to pinch a JP word.
No, I'm not the bee whisperer, I was told about it by an old commercial keeper once and it seems to work. Not saying I don't get the odd"pop", but not often.