Hello David & All,
I can not see a health issue for you or the bees with dyed cotton.  I have 
seen cotton used but I can not say I ever ran across a beekeeper which used 
cotton as his smoker fuel of choice. I  have used cotton on rare occasions 
myself. An example would be the time I was moving bees in rain in hot 
weather. Bees needed smoke and the smoker fuel box was empty. Grass was wet. 
One of my favorite flannel shirts ( I was wearing) went up in smoke! In my 
opinion cotton burns strange and is either too hot ( flames when pumped) or 
going always out.
I think there are better choices for smoker fuel but maybe on the list are 
beekeepers which use cotton exclusively for smoker fuel.
Years ago I soaked my smoker fuel in salt peter and I believe I had better 
luck using cotton then. Now I prefer burlap but will use most dry grass as 
fuel if nothing else around.
A funny story which I posted on BEE-L years ago but worth repeating.
When the fiber smoker fuel plugs first came on the scene all the bee 
suppliers were handing out samples so I kept tossing in a box by my smoker 
shelf. Finally I decided one spring I needed to use the fiber fuel. So I 
did. I was going into a bee yard one day and the smoker was in a metal 
bucket on the flatbed. The land owner was standing by the truck talking to 
me. He kept talking about all the kids growing pot and the problems. He kept 
bringing the subject back to pot. Then he made a sniffing gesture with his 
nose. I laughed till I had tears in my eyes. he thought the smell of the 
smoker fuel plug was pot! I showed him a pound smoker fuel plug and then we 
both laughed. I am glad we settled his curiosity so word would not have been 
spread by the land owner about the pot smoking beekeeper.
A metal smoker box is a good investment but I have only a smoker box on one 
of my trucks. I am not sure exactly how many times I have had a smoker burn 
up in a metal bucket on the box of a flatbed truck. The smoker get hot from 
the wind going down the road and sets whatever might be flammable in the 
bucket on fire. I know there is not supposed to be anything flammable in the 
bucket but even a wooden entrance reducer can cause enough fire to catch the 
bellows on fire! I usually use a spent 12 gauge shell casing to plug the 
smoker hole but those get lost over time. A hand carved piece of wood works 
too! Even the beekeepers favorite tool. Duck tape! Will help plug the smoker 
hole and save smoker fuel and cut down on a chance of fire.
Ok lurkers here is a post all beekeepers can get involved in!

bob



-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************