In your message dated Monday 3, April 1995 you wrote :
> Since some fellows are discussing smoke producing techniques I
> would really like to hear from people that have considerable
> experience what is their favourite smoke producing agent?
>
> Or am I just asking something that is a standard?
>
> Thanks
> Andreas
>
 
The correspondence on this thread has been interesting, and to paraphrase
the old saying about colony management "if you ask 10 beekeepers how to use
a smoker you'll get 12 different answers".
 
For practical reasons (being able to work hives for long periods without
having to fiddle with the smoker too often), I recommend sacking that's
well weathered.  (I think that's the same as burlap; experiment with
different weaves).  The key is well weathered, and the sacking should be
rotten enough to be torn apart by hand without you needing to be Superman.
 I lay the bags out where they are exposed to the sun and rain, for several
months.
 
To make the smoke less unpleasant it pays to add some organic matter to the
top of the smoker, using the sacking for a longlasting burn but topping up
the organic material more frequently.  I would chose pine needles first
(Pinus radiata, but I don't think it matters), but lots of other material
is good;  dried gum leaves, green Lawsoniana leaves, green grass, the long
strips of bark that are easily peeled off the native New Zealand tree
kanuka and its cousin manuka, even gum bark.
 
For me using corrugated cardboard, rolled or otherwise, is doing it the
hard way; hard to keep going and hard to breathe.  Likewise broken off
chunks of soft wallboard (Pinex and other trade names).  And I've always
been too wary of the chemicals that baling twine is impregnated with to
want to burn it in my smoker.
 
It pays to be adventurous though.  For a long time I thought that using hay
wasn't worth the trouble, until a beekeeper showed me that the secret is
to never empty the ash out from your smoker.  The bed of the burnt residue
makes it easy to start again next time, and prevents the hay from burning
away too quickly.
 
If you use newspaper to get any material going the secret is to use as
little as possible.
 
Andrew
 
--
**************************************************************************
* From Andrew Matheson, Director, International Bee Research Association *
*                                                                        *
* E.mail (home):   [log in to unmask]                             *
*        (office): [log in to unmask]                                    *
*                                                                        *
* IBRA, 18 North Road, Cardiff CF1 3DY, UK                               *
* Fax (+44) 1222-665522     Telephone (+44) 1222-37209                   *
**************************************************************************