Plain Talk: Smoke and Smokers (181)

Episode 181 – Plain Talk: Smoke and Smokers

Jim Tew: Listeners, I just don't understand bees. It's still a nice spring day. It's getting along in spring. Fruit bloom is at its peak, but it's still here. I had an inclination that I would give you this system that's evolved over the years and how I light a smoker. Now, that's late-breaking, high-tech information, isn't it? Give me a chance to go through it. Maybe it'll help you some, and if you've got any comments, tell me how you keep your smoker going.

I don't understand bees, because I'm only 25 feet away from my colonies. It's a beautiful day, and I've got about three bees that just will not leave me alone. I've done nothing to them. I can see one, but how did this committee of three come together and decide that I needed to be under attack? I'm having to wear a suit, which means my microphones are probably muffled or whatever. I just thought it'd be a nice day to come talk about a smoker and not do anything to the bees, but oh no.

To make it official, listeners, I'm Jim Tew. I'm here at Honey Bee Obscura, where once a week I come to you to talk about something or other to do with bees. Today I want to talk with you about the way I light my smoker and how it evolved over the years.

Introduction: Welcome to Honey Bee Obscura, brought to you by Growing Planet Media, the producers of the Beekeeping Today podcast. Join Jim Tew, your guide through the complexities, the beauty, the fun, and the challenges of managing honey bees. Jim hosts fun and interesting guests who take a deep dive into the intricate world of honey bees. Whether you're a seasoned beekeeper or just getting started, get ready for some plain talk that'll delve into all things honey bees.

Jim: Listeners, I honestly don't remember where I was at a sale somewhere, and they were selling 30-gallon, heavy-duty, galvanized cans with lids. They were going for $4 or $5 or $6 a piece. I don't remember. I'm an opportunist, and I had a truck, and I've got room for plenty of these cans. I must have bought five or six of them. Then they really served no purpose. They weren't big enough for a garbage can, not really. They weren't small enough just to use for a common bucket for weeds or whatever. I don't know when I did it, but at some point, I used one of the cans for putting my smoker in. One of the cans has my smoker, and the other can has my fuel.

I'm using cedar bedding shavings, and I don't think that's really a good idea. I think it's a convenient idea, but I don't know if it's a good idea or not because of the residue and the smoke. The only other thing that you can find in shavings like that is pine, and I don't think the rosin in that is any better. I'm telling you that I'm using cedar shavings, but I'm also admitting to you that I don't know if that's a good idea or not for me and my bees' respiratory system, but it really is convenient.

Inside the can with the shavings, I've got a roll of paper towel, I have a sheet of newspaper, I have a striker and I have a hive tool. In the other can that's completely empty, I have a smoker. Up until this point, this is all routine, isn't it? I'm not saying that I've discovered sliced bread, but I am saying that this really works well for me. When I come back out to light my smoker, I take one of the heavy duty lids, and I turn it upside down, and then I open the smoker, and I pour everything that was left in the smoker from the previous burn onto the lid to include the paper plug that I made out of a part of a piece of rolled up paper towel.

Now, what I've found is that charcoal really starts up easy. Then when I'm going to fire off the smoker, put a piece of newspaper or a piece of the paper towel, and then hit that with the striker, get a good strike going, and then I reach over and I take some of that charcoal from the previous burn, including the pieces of the paper that were left that I started it with, and I pack that in, and right away, you get a nice white smoke coming that's going to quickly go to a flame. I'd like to see a flame.

Then, there it is, there it is. After you get the flame, you can put the rest of the previously burned fuel in and then go over here to the other can and add unburned bedding, and really add it. Pack it in hard, pack it in hard. Then when I get-- here I am now, I'm about two inches from the top, I've got smoke everywhere, then I'm going to take a piece of that paper towel and I'm going to put it across the top so I don't blow cedar shavings out every time that I use the smoker. This burns a long time, and it burns hot if you're not careful, but it'll go for, without repacking it, it'll go for 20 to 25 minutes just sitting around out here.

Then when I come back and I want to restuff it, you refire it, you may or may not get-- If the paper's burned, take it off and repack it, use the same paper. If the paper's burned, use another piece. It's all turning into smoke anyway. Then as the day winds down, I'm going to go back and put this back in this other can. Just before I do that, I will add a round of this paper towel, just make a plug out of it.

Listeners, I'm almost reluctant to say this, but interestingly, a spent shotgun shell makes a good plug. It exactly fits most smoker openings, but I really don't want you to use a shotgun shell that's not been fired. Let's just stay with the paper towel. Others of you use weeds or whatever. I'm finished for the day. I'm tired. I smell like smoke. The bees are all cranky. They're buzzing all around me. I'm putting everything away. I'll come back over and I'll plug just the top entrance. I don't plug the bottom entrance. Then I just put it back into the can and put the lid back on it. It's protected from the weather. As the smoker wants to, it burns out.

Then when I come back again for the next time, you know the drill, take the smoker out, take one of the heavy galvanized lids, turn it upside down, pour all that burnt residue out and then start all over again. I know that you're probably driving a car. I know you're probably sitting in your easy chair so, I'm going to take a break, hear from our sponsor, want to come back and make you sit through this routine one more time. Then we're going to call that done and move on to other aspects of smoke and smoking. Standby.

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Jim: Listeners, I don't want you to think that I think you've got learning issues, but I want to quickly do it one last time. I've got two heavy duty cans. I don't know where you can find them. They must be on the web somewhere, but these are not just your lightweight blow away cans. These are heavy duty nice cans that I just lucked into. I use one for fuel, and I use the other to hold the smoker, either lit or as it's dye.

I take the heavy duty lid off one of the cans, flip it over, pour out all the previous residue on that lid. I use a piece of paper towel or newspaper, and I start a fire. Then I puff that down into the tank of the smoker, the barrel. Then I begin to add that previously burned charcoal and ash from the previous fire, which really burns nicely and quickly. I put all that back in. I even put in the plug from the previous time that I snuffed the smoker out. Then after I've got a good flame going, nice bellowing smoke going, then I will begin to add more fuel from the other container, new fuel. I'll pack it in, I'll pack it in, I'll pack it in.

When I'm about an inch from the top, I'll fold another piece of paper towel or newspaper, I have both and I'll make a top layer that prevents the bedding pieces from blowing out onto the bees when I'm using it to smoke. It burns a long time. It makes nice, white, cool smoke. When the smoke begins to heat up, go back, add to it. To finish my story, second time, plug it up with a piece of paper towel or newspaper, weeds, I use paper towel. Put it back inside the can. Put the lid on the can and let the smoker die as it wishes. Then everything starts over again. I have no residue. Over time, everything is burned.

When I move over to smoke the colonies, Kim and I and others have talked about this, little bit of smoke goes a long way. Don't over-smoke. I've also written articles and I've had comments on other podcast segments that I don't think that this smoke is a healthy thing for us or for the bees, but I have not found anything else. I know that some of you like to use sugar spray, and I know others have been saying that your bees are so gentle that you don't have to use smoke at all. I'm standing here right now in a bee veil on a nice windy day because the bees wouldn't leave me alone. I don't know that I've got the bees that you could just go without some kind of smoke in. It's a necessary evil.

We have been using smoke much longer than we've been using hive tools. This is an old idea. What's the smoke doing? I don't think anyone knows for sure. I used to enjoy telling beekeepers years ago when I thought I knew a lot more than I think I know now, that the bees thought the hive was on fire and that they were having to take a lunch and they were going to have to go. Even as I was saying that, I knew that there was problems with that story because the queen can't fly. Yes, the bees may be packing up and making preparation to leave, but that queen was too heavy laden to fly. There's just all kinds of unanswered questions that I have here.

Is this an old response to fire in a tropical area when fires would flash across open plains and the bees had to be able to go? They were migratory anyway, and the queen didn't establish this heavy weight and this inability to fly without preparation? Is that just the remnants of that behavior? Why does smoke entice bees to go back in and engorge on honey and then make preparation to leave?

Then the mystery just continues to develop. Those bees that are engorged, according to some authors, are said to not be able to bend their abdomen enough to actually administer a sting to you. Other writers say that they are sated. They've got all the food that they need, and they're in a good mood. They're calm. I don't know. I do know this. On some days, if you go out to a full-sized colony, 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 bees, and you don't have a smoker firmly going, you are going to take a spanking. Those bees are going to be organized. They're going to come out. They're going to go for you.

We have to use smoke to confuse their defensive system, to mask their pheromonal messages, and to confuse them and to defeat them. I guess it's worth saying again that we are the bees' biggest pest. We outrank bears. We outrank varroa. We outrank everything. We are the bees' most accomplished pest. The smoke's going to last maybe six to seven minutes, depending on the bees, depending on the weather, depending on everything, but probably six to seven minutes before you're going to need another puff again. You don't need a lot. Just turn them around. Drive them off the top bars. Push them back down.

In my early years, I saw people like me. I didn't do it, but I saw others do it. Smoke the bees so much, they're bowling out the front. That's an overkill. That is wrong. Unless you've got a reason for trying to force the bees out, don't over-smoke them like that. I started this topic because I don't care for this smoke thing. I've already told you some of the reasons why. Every time I come out, even after I've done just this little discussion for you, I'm going to have to go back and wash my clothes and wash myself. Then if I go and get in my truck over time, as you know, our lives as beekeepers begin to take on a wax propolis smoke smell. It's just a pervasive part of beekeeping that I don't particularly enjoy.

How many times have there been stories that you've heard at meetings where a beekeeper was in a hurry trying to get home, working late at night, loaded everything up after dark, and drove to the next yard with a lit smoker on the back of the truck, only to have the smoker flame up, start a fire on the supers with all that wax there, and then have a horrific truck fire? It hasn't happened in a long time that I've heard of, but it's definitely happened. More appropriately, it's how many times have you people started unintentional fires in the bee yard with your smoker? I know some of the stories. Those of you who are listening, you know who I'm talking about. They're in a national forest about to start a major fire.

There's just all kinds of reasons not to really want to have this smoke in our lives, but at this point, we have nothing any better. Be judicious. Use the least amount of smoke you can. I've been told by those who spent some time on this that if you've got to use smoke, use wheat stem straw. That it has the least byproducts, but I don't know where I could routinely get wheat stem straw compared to just going to a farm supply store and buying this animal bedding, which has all these oils and phenols and residue in it that I shouldn't be breathing and my bees shouldn't be breathing.

Otherwise, you people have tried to set fire on everything I know of' cow pods, punk wood, rolled up cardboard, old rags. Anything that makes a soft, white, cool smoke is appropriate for using to turn the bees around, mask their odors, and confuse their defensive system.

I got this system that's evolved. It works well for me with my smoker. I just wish that someone of you, somebody out there, had devised a better, more environmentally-friendly procedure for invading our bees, rather than making them and us think that the world is on fire.

Send me your comments if you've got something that works well with a smoker that you like. Let me hear from you. I'll make a comment in future segments. Thank you for listening. I always enjoy talking to you. Bye-bye.

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