Three Easy Steps
Lighting and more importantly keeping your bee smoker lit can be a challenge. But it does not need to be. We will cover some of the basics in getting your bee smoker lit and keeping it lit. And do not worry, no need to be a pyromaniac or use highly flammable accelerants. These easy steps will help you get your bee smoker lit and stay lit, but there are no guarantees your smoker will always want to cooperate.
Sometimes, no matter how hard I work at getting my bee smoker lit, it just does not want to play along. Though this usually is when I am in a hurry and trying to squeeze in a hive inspection between other chores. If you have trouble with your smoker, keep in mind you are not alone. So let us get started.
Step 1 – Preparing to light the bee smoker
The first thing you should do is a quick inspection of your smoker. Lool to make sure that the screen plate at the bottom is in place and free of debris. Unless air can easily flow through this screen, you will struggle to light and keep your smoker lit.
This is also a good time to quickly inspect the bellows of your bee smoker to make sure there are no holes in it. The bellows typically come in leather, synthetic leather, and newer ones a rubber-like plastic. If you find any holes you should plan to replace the bellows or the entire smoker. The bellows are the key part of fanning air into the fire chamber of the smoker.
Staying Safe
Since you are playing with fire quite literally, I would also suggest that you make sure the location you are lighting your smoker is safe. Staying away from flammable materials, dry grass, other dry vegetation, and other things easy to set on fire would be a great idea. After all, you want your bee smoker lit not the world around you.
Once you are sure your smoker is ready to go, you will also need fuel for the smoker. Not the type of fuel for your car or truck, but a natural product that will create a cool smoke to use to “settle” your bees.
Paper, small twigs or pine needles are good choices to get the fire going. Then you can step up to the larger material. And do not forget the ignition source. Matches and lighters both work well. I prefer the BBQ or candle lighter with the long wand over matches or your typical cigarette lighter.
Choosing your fuels
When choosing a fuel to use, keep in mind that you will need both materials to start the smoker and fuel to keep the smoker going. My goal is to create a bed of smoldering coals in the bottom of the smoker that I can then add material to the top of to generate the smoke.
Here is a list of some items you can use as smoker fuel. Each one has its own purpose.
- Paper – plain paper, newsprint, etc.
- Pine needles
- Evergreen branches and needles – we use Douglas fir and Western Red Cedar
- Cones – Pine or Fir – we use Douglas fir
- Grass
- Wood Stove Pellets
- Straw
- Rotted wood – NO Treated wood
Sourcing and Using Your Fuel Types
Pine Needles
Even though we are here in the Pacific Northwest on the “wet” side of the mountains, there are several sources of pine needles available to us. If you do not have easy access to pine needles, your local garden center may carry pine needles for use as mulch.
Wood Pellets
We have used wood pellets with pretty good success. The wood pellets are more to create a bed of coals to keep the bee smoker going. Though they can also create smoke as well. You need to keep these safe from moisture or else you will end up with a lot of sawdust. These wood stove pellets are available from a variety of stores. They do tend to come in a large bag, so these can last you a very long time.
Grass and Straw
With grass and straw, I prefer to use grass that has some moisture in it. Green grass works but I find grass that has been cut for several days to weeks and left in clumps works well as producing a cool smoke. I am not a fan of straw because it is usually so dry, I have found that you need to pack it pretty tight into you smoker to keep it from burning too quickly.
Rotted Wood
Rotten wood I also use for building coals to keep the smoker going. I can usually find an ample supply of slightly rotten red Alder or Douglas fir in my travels around the bee yards. Alder, I really like, because it seems to hold the heat well and burns at a slower rate than some other woods. You will need to break this into about golf ball size or slightly larger pieces to place in the smoker.
Now that you have inspected your bee smoker, collected some fuel and have a lighter of some type, it is time to get light it up. The first thing to do is to make sure where you are going to light your smoker is safe to do so. The last thing you want to do is start a brush fire of some kind and risk burning your bees or something worse up in the process.
Step 2 – Loading and lighting your smoker
First, you want to grab some paper and make a loose ball with it. An 8 1/2″ x 11″ size of paper is about what you’ll want. Place that ball of paper at the bottom of your smoker. Next, I like to use pine needles on top of the paper. You’ll want a good handful of them and place them on top of the paper. Finally, put some of your cones, 2 or 3 depending on size, on top of the pine needles.
At this point, you want to light the paper on fire and gentle fan the fire by squeezing the bellows. You do not want to fan it too aggressively as do not want to quickly burn the paper up. As the fire grows and the pine needles ignite you will want to be ready to add some more cones. I like to add a couple of more as the paper and needles burn up. Keep slowly squeezing the bellows to fan the fire. At this point is when I like to add in the wood pellets or rotten wood.
Add the larger chunks of wood or wood pellets slowly. You do not want to smother the fire and put it out. There is more of a risk of smothering the fire when using wood pellets that with the rotten wood. Which ever you are using or if using both, you want to keep fanning the fire to get these burning well. At this point prefer to use the wood chunks first and then add the wood pellets afterwards.
Now that you have some good coals, you can slow down on the fanning and add in your grass or straw. Squeezing the bellows every 15 to 20 seconds should be adequate. I like to pack the grass down fairly tight in the top of the smoker. At this point you can close the top on the smoker and squeeze the bellows slowly occasionally to keep the coals hot in the bottom. When you do this, you should get a light color, almost white, “cool” smoke out the top of your smoker.
Step 3 – Keeping your smoker lit
Now that you have the bee smoker lit and “cool” smoke coming from it when you squeeze the bellows it is ready for use on your hive. As you are working your hives, you will need to squeeze the bellows at least once every minute or two depending on the size of your smoker and the amount of coals you have at the bottom. Also, do not forget to add some more fuel as you go. I usually just add more grass as needed. Sometimes I will need to add more cones, wood, or pellets if I need the smoker for some time.
Conclusion
While this is not completely foolproof, with a little preparation and patience, you can easily light your bee smoker and keep it lit. And just remember, the smoker gets very hot. Watch where you place it and don’t touch the fire chamber or even the screen that is on most smokers. They can burn you, melt plastic, or set dry grass and other things on fire. And if done carefully, you can avoid inhaling the smoke, though I always seem to come home smelling like smoke, just like the days when I was a volunteer firefighter.
Happy beekeeping. And if you think you would prefer a smoke free option to your smoker, you can check out our article on using sugar syrup instead of smoke. Happy beekeeping!
