Apidou smoker fuel

01 · HOW TO LIGHT IT

It needs embers underneath, not a match on top

This is the complaint that comes up most, and it nearly always starts the same way: the pellets go into the smoker and the flame goes in at the top. That lights the top layer, which burns through and dies. A compact pellet does not start from a flame: it starts from embers already going underneath. The order that works is the other way round — kindling in the bottom first (pine needles, crumpled newspaper, corrugated card, cotton or hessian quick fuel), let it catch properly, and only then feed the Apidou in on top, a little at a time, working the bellows gently and steadily as the embers climb. Stop working the bellows in that first minute and it goes out. Once the smoke comes out white and steady, you can leave it alone.

02 · COOL SMOKE, NOT HOT

The colour of the smoke tells you how you are doing

What you want is white, cool smoke. Hot bluish smoke does not calm the bees: it winds them up, and it makes your job harder. If the nozzle gets very hot or a flame starts to show, that is not the fuel asking for more air — it is the opposite: you have packed it too full and you are pumping too much. Leave room below the nozzle, space the pumps out and give it time. Once lit, the pellet does not want a constant bellows, and less air means more smoke and less heat.

03 · HOW FAR IT GOES

A kilo covers several days out

The maker's figure is 4 to 6 full visits to an apiary of 10 hives per kilo, depending on how long the inspections run and how often you top up. On that basis the 5 kg bag is the size for anyone running 10 to 30 colonies who wants to forget about it for the season; the 1 kg is for trying it out or keeping a spare in the van. The slow burn is what holds that figure up: one charge lasts hours, so the real cost is not what you burn but how many times you have to light it again.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY