I have a pellet burning stove and keep several bags of pellets on hand. I don't have enough hives to justifying using this method but it sounds useful for the larger enterprises. I plan to try it anyway. Thanks for the info. Doug Henry, Lockport Manitoba On Thu, 31 Oct 1996, MR MARK G SPAGNOLO wrote: > Hi: > I have been following the discussion on smoker fuels. Here at Kona > Queen we used to use wood scraps. It gave a nice smoke, but we use > literally tons of fuel every year, (fifteen full time beekeepers for > nine months of the year and nine for the other three months), and the > expense was enormous. > We now use a commerical product designed for a pellet stove. This > stuff is pressed and extruded wood chips. It kind of looks like > rabbit droppings. > We purchase it in bags on a pallet. It is kind of hard to start, but > a lot of newspaper and some forced air from the compressor blown > through the bottom of the smoker fixes that problem. > The only modification to the smoker is the use of a screen on the top > to keep the "pellets" from blowing out the top. > This fuel with burn all day and even into the night. I have had my > smoker stay lit for two days straight! >