>I have also used:
>
>Cardboard rolled into bundles that will fit into the smoker.  Leave enough
>space to light the lower edge of the roll.  This seems to be a cool smoke
>that I have seen no adverse effect on the bees.
 
We had a speaker ( a researcher from Texas?) at our annual meeting last year
who had been experimenting with different materials to kill mites and using
it in smokers as the delivery method.  He mentioned several fuels that were
sugested to him that he had been working with.  I believe he used mesquite,
tarweed? and several other items that I can't remember.  The one item he did
mention using that I do remember was cardboard.  He thought it would be a
good control.  With some of the cardboard he used, the colonies died!!!!  He
attributed the loss of these colonies to the cardboard he used!! He did not
keep track of the source of the cardboard, and other times using cardboard
from other sources did not have the same effect.  I have used cardboard in
the past with no problems.  I will not use it anymore.  The source of the
cardboard is seldom if ever known, and each box can be different.  It is not
worth the risk to me.  I thought it was pretty far fetched that smoke from a
cardboard box would kill bees until I thought about it for a while.
Certainly a variety of chemicals are used in its manufacture, and then it
makes sense that ANYTHING could happen from there on.
 
As far as keeping a smoker lit, I always remember what the instructor in the
beekeeping class I took said.
" Always remember that fire always burns UP."   It made sense then, and it
seems anytime I have trouble with my smoker, it is because I have the fire
on top of the fuel, instead of the fuel on top of the fire.  And as much as
I hate restarting the smoker, I know that if I don't empty it and start it
right, it just plain won't work right.
Roekel