Smoker Technique

[emfilter]

I'm a new-bee from Maryland and wanted to throw a question out to the crowd: how do YOU create the 'cool' smoke needed to inspect the hives? I'm having a tough time; in my smoker I either have a blaze going and can't use the smoke because it's too hot, or a wimpy fire which goes out just when all the bees start looking at me! HELP!

[NasalSponge]

I start with a balled up piece of newspaper, get that going good and add some small pieces of burlap, once that is blazing good I snuff the flame out by adding a large piece of tightly rolled burlap. This gives me copious amounts of thick white smoke that is cool.

[tommyt]

sounds cool to me

[dnebee]

Grandpa showed me to pull a handful or two of some tall grass near the hive. Then form it into a fluffy ball and put it on top of your fire. Seems to work for me no matter what fuel you are using.

[ArkansasBK]

Burlap with the green grass works good for me.

[LtlWilli]

I read a brief article that recommended using dryer lint. I intend to give it a try. Hope it works because lint is something we generate a lot of.

[Rob73]

Brown dried pine needles.... lights easy, smells good, smokes like a train. Cram a handful loosely into the smoker and it lights very easily. Once it gets flaming up good, cram another handful tightly down in there to snuff out the flame. Throw the lid down and puff away. Smokes good. Not everyone has access to pine needles though, I am fortunate enough to have about 30 pine trees to scavenge from.
I have never had any luck with the burlap. No matter how I try to do it...

[NasalSponge]

Yikes....A buddy just gave me a big bag of pine needles and I just realized I left them in back of the truck.....we got 5 inches of rain last night.

[ccar2000]

I keep a small barrel of pine straw, broken up twigs, pine cones and other select yard debris near my hive stand. I will use old egg cartons, news papers or junk mail to get the smoker started. Once it is burning I add some charcoal from previous inspections (more on this later) and I let it burn a bit with a little puff here and there while I put my veil on and get the fire going. Then I grab a couple of handfuls of the twigs, cones and such and pack them down into the smoker with my hive tool a few more puffs to get it going, close the lid and I am set. If it ran low I would pack it again but I usually do not use that much smoke.
I also use an old champagne cork to snuff it out. I have seen some beekeepers solder a copper fitting on their smokers to snuff it out with a pipe cap.
The next time I need to use the smoker, after making sure the ashes are cold out, I use a small sifter that I made from 1 x 2's and some medium hardware cloth to sift the larger pieces of coal out of the ashes and pour them into a coffee can. Then I have the charcoal ready to pour into the smoker as mentioned above. I also use propolis and burr comb in my smoker and that seems to keep it going. Its not as complicated as I make it seem. Really.

[MDS]

Pine needles also. Start with small amount, get flame going and pile more in. Pump till fire comes out the hole of smoker and let it die down. Pile more in if I expect an extended inspection.

Neighbor across the street has several trees and they bunch up against the fence so it's easy to collect three Walmart plastic bags full. Lasts forever. Picked up a nice butane lighter the other day at Home Depo. $5 with a refill included. Has a bending end to it and big flame. Ummm. Fire Good!

Cork off the end of smoker when done with grass from yard.

[honeybeekeeper]

I like using newspaper, burlap, pine needles and some good ole dried up ky horse dung!

[Michael Bush]

>how do YOU create the 'cool' smoke needed to inspect the hives?

First you create a flame thrower. Then you stop pumping until it dies down to smolder.

[Growing Boy]

I too use pine needles. Whether I'm doing a 5 minute inspection or checking out all the hives I get it going and then I pack it to the top nice and tight. I know i'll have smoke when and if I need it.Besides the 5 minutes it takes me to get it going gives me time to plan my strategy. I've found it's always good to have a plan when working with the girls. Anticipating what each hive may need (if anything) has saved me a lot of time and problems. Sometimes. LOL.

[DCook]

Not to hijack thread, but has anyone used the liquid "smoke" that some of the suppliers sell? Mix it with water and spray on the bees.

[MDS]

Not me. Figure if its not broken, don't fix it.

Looked it up and in 1879 L.C. Root patented (No. 213.251) a smoker that looks similar to the modern smoker. "Moses Quinby invented the first practical smoker in 1873". I understand ancient cultures used natural smoke well before that, .

Not saying things don't improve, heck I'm not driving a 1930 Ford truck either.

[ccar2000]

Not me. Figure if its not broken, don't fix it.

I agree, Liquid Smoke is $1.75/gal vs. $20 for a smoker and unlimited yard debris for fuel works for me

[Heckle]

I know a guy that uses honey B healthy and suger water as a spray to work his hive. He says hes never been stung so I guess it woks for him. I'm using some smoker fuel made from cotton castoff. Just hard packed lint really. I light it with a mini torch and drop it in. I have thick cool smoke for about half hour on a golfball sized clump. When I run out of what came with my smoker I'll start using pine needles.

[CharlieN]

Burlap with the green grass works good for me.

Must be an Arkansas thing though it's getting harder to find tow sacks around here - gettin to be less farms n more people.

[ArkansasBK]

I went in the warehouse part of our farm co-op and asked the loader if he had any tow sacks with rat holes in them. He handed me four!! That was luck! Our local Atwoods sells them new, but about $4.50 each.

[NasalSponge]

Back in the day (late 80's) the mill in the town I lived in sold me a pallet of them for next to nothing. Last year I bought a big box of them off ebay.

20 bucks for a pickup load!

http://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/grd/2361666644.html