Last year, which was my first season doing bees, my Dad had his hip replaced, which meant I had to "go it alone" for a while. Nothing makes you learn how to use enough smoke on your bees like going alone as a newbie! I was so worried about giving them too much smoke...for weeks I'd end up walking around the field when I was done for 30-45 minutes trying to get the bees to stop attacking my veil. (I couldn't just hop in the car in my suit because my two little boys were in the back seat!). Needless to say, I quickly learned how to get my smoker smoking, keep it smoking, and use enough to keep the bees uninterested in me!
Here's my favorite smoker "cocktail!" A mixture of cedar shavings, dried pine needles, and some commercially sold fluffy "smoker fuel" from my dad! One year we put our Christmas tree on the side of our house on a gravel pad and kindof forgot about it for a while. It dried out, needles fell, and then when we had a huge rain, all the needles washed nicely into a big pile! Score! So I filled a gallon ice cream pail with dry needles and now use them in my fuel! The cedar shavings I got cheap at a pet store. The fluffy stuff is some smoker fuel my dad had purchased previously, and I mix them all together for some awesome smoke!
One of the many little tips I learned while taking the beekeeping courses at the University of Minnesota is to set the smoker on it's side, on the bellows, when you're lighting it. The bellows act as a pedestal, holding the smoker at a great angle to spread out and expose your fuel, allowing you to stick your lighter in there and get it all going!
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