I normally use hessian sacking as a smoker fuel. When I started beekeeping I was advised that when I finished for the day I should stuff the smoker orifices with grass to stifle the airflow and leave the the smoker on its side until extinguished. This has the effect that the part-burnt hessian (or other fuel for that matter) remains as a fine carbon rather than burning away to ash. This then lights easily the next time I use it. Relighting is usually a very undramatic affair with little flame, I just get a bit smouldering and puff away 'til I get the smoke volume I want. The variety of materials used for smoker fuel is pretty wide. Various mixes of woodland waste seem popular: pine needles; pine cones; bark, some mushrooms when dried; grass; leaves (including tobacco and marijuana); corrugated cardboard. I guess if its around, burns, smokes and doesn't kill the bees people use it. -- Gordon Scott [log in to unmask] 100332,3310 on CompuServe Newsletter [log in to unmask] ditto Beekeeper, Kendo Sandan, sometime sailor. Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG22 5HP, UK Pain lasts but a moment, it is the fear of pain that deadens the heart.