I went and tried the sumac heads as they are plentyful in my area. They
worked really well in that they were easy to light and produced a cool,
thick white smoke. I had a minor problem in that these were old heads from
last year that had been sitting on the plants for over a year and they were
thin and weathered. They burnt up pretty quickly and I had to re-fill my
smoker after only working 3 of my 5 hives. I think they would work best if
the heads were collected in the fall, say October, after they are dry but
before they are reduced too much by weather.

> ----------
> From:         Aaron Morris[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology
> Sent:         Monday, July 10, 2000 6:10 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: smoker
>
> There was an excellent article in this month's ABJ rating various smoker
> fuels.