Smoker Fuel & Accessories

Smoke does not stun or send bees to sleep: it interrupts alarm-pheromone communication and triggers the reflex of filling the crop with honey. A bee with a full crop is less inclined to sting. Everything else follows from that.

The smoke must be white and cool

Hot or black smoke burns wings and upsets the colony instead of calming it. It comes out like that when the fuel burns with a flame instead of smouldering. That is why the smoker is packed tight and allowed to make embers, not fire.

What is NEVER burned

Printed cardboard, plastics, chipboard, treated fabrics, sacking with product residue. All of it releases compounds that end up in the hive, in the wax and in the honey — and wax absorbs anything fat-soluble. Untreated plant material only.

The range

• Straw pellets (€2.75) — easy to light, long-lasting and giving steady white smoke. The cleanest option.
• Apidou and shavings — classics, widely used; worth combining with something that keeps the embers going.
• Bottom grate (€2) — lifts the charge off the base so air comes in underneath and the smoker stops going out every five minutes.
• APIBOX® cases — to carry the smoker still hot without burning anything in the car.

Smokers are in smokers; hive management in bee health.