Beekeeping 101: Starting Your Smoker
I spent at least the first 2 years of beekeeping fussing with my smoker. Don’t laugh, but I did not know for 2 full years that my smoker was set up wrong. I actually probably would never have known if I hadn’t started attending a beekeeping group.
I can see the look on experienced beekeeper’s faces right now. They know exactly what I’m going to say. And to some that are more mechanically inclined than me, you may know too because you probably already figured it out. I’m just dumb. But, I bet I’m not the only one!
So what is it???
You know that little round disk that comes inside your smoker. It’s flat right? Not really sure what it does? It helps air flow through your smoker when you push the bellows. But it doesn’t work very well unless you set up the feet first!!! That’s right! Bend those little feet down and stick it feet first into your smoker, like a table.
And if you bend the feet out just right, they’ll push against the walls of the smoker enough to hold the disk in place so the disk doesn’t fall out when you empty the smoker either. Voila!
Two years I fussed! Oh my goodness people! Now you know too!
The rest of starting a smoker depends on you. There are a lot of different fuels you can use. You can buy pellets or burlap or who knows what else is out there. I find that stuff too expensive over time, so I just pull from what I have available, which is a garden full of untreated, uncolored mulch. It is a very good idea to keep a few ziploc bags of whatever type of dry kindling you plan to use with your bee stuff by the way.
Here’s what I do probably 99% of the time:
- Keep the lid open through this entire process. You want to build a fire in there. Don’t smother it too early.
- I always have either a wax-soaked cotton ball or oil-soaked paper towel that I light to get it going. The wax or oil will help it burn longer, like a candle or tiki torch. Women, if you clean your Scentsy wax warmers with cotton balls, save the cotton balls somewhere. Congratulations! You just made fire starters!
- They work in a smoker or for campfires.
- Next I throw long, very, very skinny pieces of dry wood mulch (or straw or pine needles) on top as I pump the bellows slowly.
- Once those begin to light, I choose slightly bigger pieces less than 1/2″ diameter. Some people use wood stove pellets. I don’t have pellets on hand, so that’s not my method. Don’t rush this though. Take a few minutes to do this. You have to give the fire time to build up. Pump the bellows a few times in between each addition. You should have a pretty decent fire going in there by the end of this step. If your fire starts going really good but suddenly goes out, and you have a bunch of smoke instead of fire, try pumping the bellows regularly for a minute or two until it reignites.
- Next I pull much bigger chunks of wood mulch. Usually around 3/4 – 1″ thickness. Keep pumping the bellows in between each addition. Fill the entire smoker up with these. Sometimes I stop there.
- Sometimes I add a ball of pine needles. I like the smoke that the pine needles make, and I hear that it burns a bit longer that way. I haven’t found that to be true personally, but I like the smoke.
- Lastly, I add a large ball of fresh green grass to the lid (not the base) and pack that in. You don’t want to blow hot smoke on the bees. The grass cools the smoke down so the bees are not scalded.
I can usually get at least 2 hours out of my smoker. Then I add more fuel (wood chips and/or pine needles) and pump the bellows for a couple minutes to get it going again.
It’s not terribly difficult, but if you’re having a rough time, it’s probably because you either didn’t have that disk set up right, your fuel is wet, or you’re not building up your fire enough before capping the lid. Hope this helps!
