Beekeeping: Tips for Using a Smoker

"When you first light the smoker your really need to be actively pumping the bellows so that is a lot enough air goes up through the smoker to keep the fire alive. Then when we walk over to the beehives we will, you will some the entrance of the hive a little bit where the bees are coming and going. Get a little smoke into the hive so that will get their mind off of you and stinging you and then as open the hive we will use the smoker again. As we go through looking for the queen and so forth. Basically buffalo chip terrific fuel in fact the pioneers at in the parries use to collect these for fuel to keep warm. I have learned that they are really handy for bee smokers because they burn well. They burn long and they keep smolders. One thing be careful about bee smokers and this is good a, it gives you good reason why. This will become a coal as well as some of the other fuels. So you would never want to empty a bee smoker right out on to the grass because it will it will start a fire. You have to be very careful emptying a bee smoker I never do. I leave it, the smoker together keep it in the truck this way and then when I get home the next day when its cold you can empty it."