Hessian Smoker Fuel

01 · HOW TO USE IT

A hand's width of cloth, and the fuel on top

Cut a piece about a hand's width, light one corner, drop it in the firebox and add the fuel you use on top. The flame of the jute lights what sits above it and saves you the spell of bellows and white smoke. A 3 m roll gives you about fifteen pieces that size.

02 · WHY JUTE AND NOT ANY OLD SACKING

Today's sacking is usually plastic

This is natural jute, with no glues or chemical treatments, and that is what gives clean smoke. The sacking you find around the place is often polypropylene: it does not burn, it melts and it gives off smoke that has no business inside a hive. If it melts into shiny threads instead of catching when you hold a flame to it, it is not jute.

03 · STORING AND PUTTING IT OUT

Dry it lights; damp it doesn't

Keep the roll dry: damp, it is as hard to light as green wood. And when you finish, check that the smoker is out before you put it away, because jute embers last longer than they look.

04 · BEFORE YOU BUY

It is a lighting consumable: it does not replace the fuel that gives you smoke through the visit.