Where I come from, a lot of the old timers used to use burlap (gunny sack) in their smokers. Usually these were worn out onion sacks or such. Nowadays, burlaps isn't used all that much for anything except coffee beans. Anyway, once the smoker was going pretty good, they would add a swig of used crankcase oil. Now, aside from the pollution it causes, this made the coolest densest smoke I had ever seen and burned for hours (days?).

Fastforward to the present. I get coffee sacks from a local coffee roaster. These are used one time, not recycled like the old onion sacks. They seem to nice to burn up, but burlap is my preferred smoker fuel and I am *not going to buy it* in any case. Once this is going pretty well, I like to take a few pieces of burr comb (bees wax) and drop it down in. This has almost the same effect as the used oil: the smoke is cool and dense, and the smoker stays lit forever. 

Of course, the idea that the smell of burning wax has some psychological effect on the bees will no doubt resonate with some folks. Not me, though. I still say the effect is intoxication either due to lack of oxygen, or chemicals in the smoke itself (aromatic hydrocarbons). Also, the confusion of the colony's odor communication system. 

PLB

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