[pgayle]

Has anyone bought one?

http://www.beezsmoker.com/

I can see some use for it, the main one being the greatly diminished risk of setting something on fire besides your smoker fuel. The other is not having to take the time to light one if you are just going into one or 2 colonies. A disadvantage is cost.

I did buy one. I have used it. I am deferring my comments. I would like to hear from other users.

 

[Brad Bee]

A fellow beek and friend of mine bought one. He later traded it for an empty nuc box......

 

[GLOCK]

Well if that guy has had bee's since 1976 and that's how he light's a smoker he's not a very good bee keeper. I can light mine in less then 60 sec. and it stays lite for 2 hours.
I think it's just one more of them in the corner beekeeping junk things. I think we all have some.
Here one of my many.
Electric Uncapping Plane

 

[shannonswyatt]

LOL!!! I think the three step process is this. 1. Send us lots of money (you know, the money you were saving to purchase one more nuc this year). 2. We ship you this thing. 3. You wonder why you fell for the slick marketing campaign.

Lighting a smoker gives my inner pyro an outlet.

I would think that if you are going into one hive having a gizmo that lights quickly or that is instant on is probably pretty cool. I have the opposite problem though. I will light my smoker to go into one hive and then decide that what the hell, might as well check this one, and oh well, I still have some ashes from that paper plate I put in the smoker for fuel, I may as well go into this monster hive too!

 

[WWW]

A 20 year veteran beekeeper should know how to light a smoker, that type of advertisement is embarrassing, makes me wonder what they are not telling us about the new beezsmoker. :shhhh:

 

[Zbee]

Ya'll see the pricetag on that baby? $150? Yeah... I think I will stick to the 'ol lighter and fuel.

 

[Honey-4-All]

Well if that guy has had bee's since 1976 and that's how he light's a smoker he's not a very good bee keeper.

In total agreement here... Nor very wise regarding fire and smoke physics...

Being from sunny ( and often very dry) California where we minimize smoker use for safety concerns in the first place I can tell you that any help that was caught lighting smoker fuel from the top down would have a head smoking MRI provided free of charge within an hour of being caught for doing any such foolish thing. Plain unsafe in our area and for sure the dumbest way to burn up bees instead of smoking them.

When I first spied one of these at ML a few years back I decided to pass as I really didn't need another piece of equipment to toss on the junk pile. If I'm going to use anything build under the same principle it would be a piped system to smoke bees right off the mounting and tips of the forklift. Beyond that........ forget it.

 

[WBVC]

My Dad kept bee 55 yeRs ago..long since past away. I was cleaning out an old cupboard in the barn and found a can of Bee Smoke..press the nozzle and out comes smoke. Now that is easy

 

[pgayle]

Well, I've used it three times. The first time I put a small amount of fuel in because that's the way I understood the instructions.

The fluffy pine shavings burn up fast and I kept having to refill. The next time, I was probably not going to need it, so I just had it on standby, and needed it once. I thought it was pretty neat to be able to have smoke in 30 seconds or so. I was liking it better.

The time after that, I added more fuel but did not pack it down because they say not to. It kept going out. I could restart.. but all those 30 seconds add up. I could not just grab the smoker and give a quick puff. Then the battery ran out in the middle of a big colony. There is no spare battery, and no quick way to change it even if there was a spare. Your only option is to recharge.

I am not impressed.

 

[Nabber86]

Ya'll see the pricetag on that baby? $150? Yeah... I think I will stick to the 'ol lighter and fuel.

Does it come with lube?

 

[Michael Bush]

I saw it demonstrated and it looked impressive. I was impressed, but not in a positive way, by the price. Even if it worked as well in real live as the demo (unusually for most products) it wouldn't be worth the price to me... but then I've got 50 years experience lighting campfires, trash fires and 40 years experience lighting smokers. I don't find it that difficult. Especially if I have an insert can. I can light it in the can, let the breeze get it going and then drop it in the smoker and not have to pump the bellows.

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmisc.htm#smokerinsert

The insert takes me about five minutes to make and costs nothing...

 

[shannonswyatt]

Nice! I like it. I'll save the next soup can!

 

[Andrew Dewey]

I bought one thinking it would be a smoker to have inside a car. I've decided I like keeping a real conventional smoker outside the car.

 

[Michael Bush]

I have a metal box for the smoker. That is my favorite way to have in in the car...

 

[F6Hawk]

How do you keep it going for 2 hours? What are you using for fuel? I have tried pine straw and pine pellets. Straw lights easier, pellets live longer, but I seem to do best with a mixture of both. Rarely does my smoker last more than an hour tho...

Well if that guy has had bee's since 1976 and that's how he light's a smoker he's not a very good bee keeper. I can light mine in less then 60 sec. and it stays lite for 2 hours.

 

[Honey-4-All]

A smoker that is loaded with the right way with the correct fuel and kept out of the wind can stay lit for way over a day. Kind of nice except when you jump in the pickup the next morning for a jaunt down the freeway to town and the guy behind you is calling either 911 or the Air resources board less than 5 minutes after you have left home. Sucks when the rest of the stuff in the bed catches on fire cause you were a numb nut and didn't cork it up. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything. And if you believe that..............

 

[shannonswyatt]

Go to youtube and lookup fatbeeman lighting a smoker. I don't do it quite like him, but I don't need to have mine go for hours on end. You just need it to smolder, not a flame.

 

[F6Hawk]

Mayhap I have not been packing mine tight enough then. I saw fat bee man's, as well as the other youtube where the guy uses pine sawdust (which I have a lot of, and haven't tried yet... will next time though!).

 

[Oldtimer]

The guy who had kept bees for 37 years and couldn't light a smoker was clearly told to make it look as complex as possible and was presumably paid a fee commensurate with publicly displaying himself as a bumbling fool.

Having said all that, the price, touted as high, is probably fair. The cost of producing this custom electronic gadget for a small market would be high, and I would not be at all surprised if they are still in a loss position over it.

I meet a lot of new beeks who just cannot get how to light a smoker & keep it burning, and because they only have one or two hives never do it enough to figure it out. For those folks an electric ignition smoker may help, long as they don't want instant puff when they pull the trigger.

 

[Kamon A. Reynolds]

Just one more thing to take the fun out of beekeeping. The smoker is a element of beekeeping. A very cool part I might add.