I am interested in the recent string regarding smoking hives to either
work them or to find the queen.  I have never heard anyone mention,
either her or i the *real* world, whether the fuel which produces the
smoke makes any difference.  As a child I watched my grandfather light
up his smoker many times.  He merely collected handfuls of litter from
under the trees where he was working.  Being in Australia this consisted
almost entirely of eucalypt leaves, twigs and bark.  The smell of
eucalypt smoke, for humans anyway, conjurs up the smell of campfires
and/or the smell of bushfires.  My grandfather always said that if was
the danger of bushfire which affected the bees, they thought there was
going to be a fire so they quickly drank as much honey as they could
which made them sleepy.
I too usually use eucaypt litter, plus bark from particular species
which smokes well.  But I have used well rotted hessian bags as well as
pine needles.  The colour as well as  well as the smell varies between
the fuels, but I am unsore as to how the bees react.  Are they any
quieter using one or the other?  I dislike the pine because of the
rapide build up of resin in the smoker which is a pest to get out.
Any comments.
Anne Brown,
Browns Busy Bees, Victoria, Australia