Smoke. Almost never! Hard on the bee's. Covers the effects of your actions. Housel . Tryed it many years ago. Not much if any effect on the bees. I prefer letting them draw their own comb in the brood chamber. That dose have a huge positive effect. Besides if you pull the propolus shell out of old comb it is round not a triangle. Cute idea but that's as far as it goes. Far more important things that actually effect the bees to think about.