Okay let's flame about smokers

[Cindi]

Nathanael.  Now you have instigated a new method with the sugar syrup spray.  An essential oil in the syrup, hmmm.....think that I will put a drop in my sprayer.  I always puff a little smoke on any area that may get a sting, never had a bee sting twice in the same area using this method.  Have a wonderful day, great life, Cindi

[Kirk-o]

I think the thing to do for mites is small cell then you don't have to warn people of the possibility of the honey you sell to be polluted
kirko

[Galaxy]

I also use Honey-B-Healthy in sugar water for spraying the bees instead of a smoker.  It works very well.  Also, fiberglass screen wire laid over the top of the box that I am working keeps them from flying out and attacking me.

[rdy-b]

Ever try taking a rag and apply bee go or bee quick or honey robber put in the smoker and do not light a few puffs and bees will move to more desirable conditions works good for robing a few frames of comb honey.(many bees in box of comb honey ) applying full strength to supper is some thing i dont recomend to pungent  RDY-B

[jfischer]

> Well, the smoker calms the bees because they become
> preoccupied with eating honey out of the cells.

This is an old wives' tale.  If it were true, bees would
notice a forest fire, and always escape the area.
They don't.  They stay and protect their brood,
sometimes to the death.

What smoke does is mask alarm pheromones, which
suppresses the problem of one bee "setting off"
a bunch of others who fly out the entrance or off
the top bars and sting you.

> When I spray 1:1 sugar water on them they start
> cleaning it up and get preoccupied with eating it.

> It also gets them all sticky and makes it difficult for
> them to fly....

That's fine for the bees on the top bars, but what
do you do about the guard bees at the entrance
and all the bees down between the combs?


> and let them eat the sugar water instead of eating
> oney they've already worked to produce, which is
> what the smoker makes them do.

Nope, the smoker does not make them do that.
I know that there are lots of old books that say so,
and I know that these stories have been repeated
over and over, but it is still misinformation.

But, if you find that sugar water works for you,
it follows that plain water would work just as
well for your (clearly very gentle) hives.  The
sugar really only presents the risk of contaminating
your honey crop.  You don't really need to spray
the bees with something sweet.

[johnnybigfish]

Well, this is what I know about using cotton,,,Dont use it from a mattress cuz it wont lite...I tried and tried and finally figured out it has fire retardant in it! I held a lighter to it for 15 minutes and it WOULD NOT burn. I also know that when I do use my smoker it performs best AFTER Im done doing the bees..Shoot, I can hardly put it out then. Finsky made a great point about the pine needle smoke, you remember, the tar thing, and making honey taste like smoke? That makes sense. But,...I use apple wood sometime(Like what you put in a smoker for meat) and that leaves a little smoke taste in my honey ..Funny thing tho,....I LIKE the taste and people compliment me about the mild smokey honey my bees make. I didnt even realize this tates was from the smoke till about 2 weeks ago.
anyways, thats all I got...
your friend,
john

[Understudy]

My how times have changed.

I saw that this thread was kicked up again and looked at my original post. Scary stuff. 

Here it is over a year and a half since I made that post.

Well I haven't used pine needles since about a week after that post.

I pretty much use long fibered sphagnum moss. Recently I found an oil free version of Aspen pine shavings that don't leave a residue behind. I actually use them with my animal cages.
I have also tried burlap and am very impressed and happy to use it. I just don't have a steady supply of it.

I also very much like Michael's method of the soup can inside the smoker.

I still only use sugar water for cut outs.

It's amazing how much has changed.

I hope over the year and half that this thread has been kicking around it has been helpful.  I hope it keeps going.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Jerrymac]

I looked in the yellow pages under (of all things) burlap. Sure enough there is a place here that sells burlap bags and yes they do make untreated bags for items that might be used for food. Peanuts and such. They are $1.00 per bag. The bag is equal to 100 pound potato sack.

How many do you want?

[Cindi]

No kidding, a long and important thread, keeps going and going and going.

I purchased burlap bags from our hardware store as I had run out of the burlap I had bought at the Honeybee Centre (where I had taken some of my courses).  This burlap from the hardware store is 100% untreated, but it burns up quickly, and I mean quickly.

The burlap at the Honeybee Centre has been treated with coconut oil, this burns cool and clean, burns for a long time and is 100% OK to use with the bees.  It would not be sold by the centre if it was at all detrimental to the health of the bees.

I also use Staghorn Sumac flower heads along with the coconut oil treated burlap.  I still have some left from last fall, I harvested the red cones and dried them in my house.  They burn for a long, long time, little residue at all and no smell.  I am on an agenda this fall for more gathering of the Staghorn Sumac flower heads.  Have a wonderful day, best of this great life.  Cindi