In the 1800s, realizing how wasteful using sulfur to kills bees to harvest honey was – then the common practice – beekeepers tried methods that instead temporarily anesthetized bees.
Ways of subduing bees have evolved over the years. Beekeepers in the past tried ether and chloroform, both of which were also used as anesthesia for humans.
Mr. Jones finds that chloroform is very useful in quieting bees. He puts a dry sponge in the tube of the smoker, then a sponge wet in chloroform–it takes but a few drops–then puts in another dry sponge. These dry sponges prevent the escape of the chloroform except when the bellows is worked. Mr. Jones finds that bees partially stupefied with chloroform receive queens without any show of ill will. As soon as the bees begin to fall, the queen is put into the hive, and no more of the vapor added. I tried this last summer with perfect success. This was recommended years ago in Germany, but its use seems to have been abandoned. It is more than likely that Mr. Jones’s method of applying the anesthetic is what makes it more valuable. The smoker diffuses the vapor, so that all bees receive it and none get too much. I should use ether instead of chloroform, as with higher animals it is a little more mild and safe.2)Albert John Cook, The Bee-keeper’s Guide, Or, Manual of the Apiary, 14th Edition, Lansing, Michigan: 1891 pp. 299-300.
A similar approach reported in 1850 involved ether.
An experimenter, blowing ether as a vapor into a colony, saw:
at first, for a second or two, there was a great disturbance in the hive, attended with a loud buzzing, but this gradually subsided, until it ceased at the end of a minute. … the bees were found lying on [the table under the hive] in a torpid condition. … The time of their revival was not noted, but the following day the bees were as lively as ever.3)The Courier Journal, august 21, 1850.
Dried puff ball mushrooms (various species), were sometimes a smoker fuel. Hydrogen sulfide emitted when the mushroom was burned had a mild, anesthetizing effect on bees.4)Wood, William F. 1983. “Anaesthesia of Honey bees by Smoke from the Pyrolysis of Puffballs and Keratin.” Journal of Apicultural Research 22 (2): 107–10. doi:10.1080/00218839.1983.11100569.]
Burning puff balls is a traditional practice among native Americans of the Great Lakes region.
One account of a great lakes Native American practice noted the burning of several varieties of mushrooms in readying hives for honey taking and then:
Puffball mushrooms impaled on sticks were put around the hive and ignited. As the smoke from these burning mushrooms wafted into the hive, the bees were effectively anesthetized…6)“Could the Bee Man Shaman Be More Than We Thought?” All Things Fungi blog at: https://fungiacademy.com/could-the-bee-man-shaman-be-more-than-we-thought-ethnomycology-investigation/
Regarding its use as an anesthetic, a 19th century natural history compendium noted:
Cats and dogs having been submitted to the action of smoke from the burning fungus, they were found to be narcotized, in the same manner as if under the influence of ether or chloroform.7)Charles Knight, Natural History, Or, Second Division of “The English Encyclopedia” · Volume 1, London: Bradbury, Evans & Co., 1866, p. 632.
Giant puffball mushrooms are available for sale on the Internet. Let me know if you try this!
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