To Bob from Bob:
Dry pine needles are my second choice. They do work very well if they are
very dry. It is nice to put some in a garbage can and store them inside
with the lid off. Start your fire with a butane lighter that is used with
a gas grill. Feed a little more straw until you have some hot coals in
the bottom of the smoker, then pack more straw in and keep puffing the
bellows. Just try to keep it going away from your face. Just a few puffs
in the front of hive...then wait about 30 seconds... take off cover and a
few more puffs through the hole in the inner cover. Try not to OVER SMOKE
THE HIVE. If you do they may just boil out all over you out of control.
My first choice is to use raw cotton. Here in the south it is available
at a cotton gin or even on the road or highway where it has blown off of
the trucks carrying it. No the kind sold in craft stores will not work,
neither 100% cotton cloth. It seems as if it has all been treated with a
fire retardant. It will hardly burn.
 
Bob Neely
Goose Creek, SC USA
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On Sun, 18 May 1997 12:01:32 -0400 Bob Billson <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>I have another newbie question. :-)
>
>What is a good smoker fuel which doesn't leave me smelling like I need
>a shower
>after I get done working with my bees?
>
>I have been using dry, long pine needles.  The smoke doesn't upset the
>bees.
>However, when I get done, I (and my clothes) don't smell that great.
>I smell
>more like burned [broadleaf] leaves rather than pine needles. My
>roommate
>doesn't even want me in the house until I 'air out'.
>
>Any suggestions on a less smelly fuel?  Or, perhaps, I am overdoing it
>with
>the smoke?
>
>        Bob
>--
>Bob Billson, KC2WZ                               email:
>[log in to unmask]
>         MS-DOS, you can't live with it.  You can live without it.
>                  Linux: the choice of a GNU generation!
>