Lavender smoker fuel

[AndyJThompson]

Hi every one,

Was clearing the garden a few weeks back and bagging the cuttings, a few of the bags are cuttings from our lavender plants which we have a huge quantity. Today i was moving the bags to the bottom of the garden ready for burning and was thinking about using them for smoker fuel.

Has any one used lavender before, I am presuming they will give of a very natural scented smoke, but will it be ok for the bees.

Any advice greatfully received.

 

[Luminos]

Perfect - my bees did not mind it at all - tars up the smoker a bit, though

 

[Finman]

.
The meaning of smoke is to prevent them to attack, or to drive bees away from some place that they do not crush between boxes.

The smoke should be faint that it does not touch the wax, honey or onto interrior of hive.

Smoke is gasified tar. Tar is poisonous and it gives extra aroma to the honey.

The best smoke comes from rotten decideous tree. Important is that it burns itself, does not give much smoke (=tar).

Too much tar glues the smoker and as cold it is difficult to get cap open.

 

[Andy Duff]

The plant wood contain an awful lot of oil, I would imagine burning it in a smoker would be akin to using tyre rubber. It might prove interesting to use the dried flowers with dried rotten wood in a smoker though.

 

[borderer]

I use the compressed lavender pellets and find that the bees are less distressed. Me smelling of laveder takes some explaining at times.

 

[AndyJThompson]

Maybe I could burn it with something else?

 

[Luminos]

I used hessian and cardboard and crumbly dry wood

 

[AndyJThompson]

.
The meaning of smoke is to prevent them to attack, or to drive bees away from some place that they do not crush between boxes.

The smoke should be faint that it does not touch the wax, honey or onto interrior of hive.

Smoke is gasified tar. Tar is poisonous and it gives extra aroma to the honey.

The best smoke comes from rotten decideous tree. Important is that it burns itself, does not give much smoke (=tar).

Too much tar glues the smoker and as cold it is difficult to get cap open.

I am not sure that this really answered my question just stated the obvious!!

 

[borderer]

Maybe I could burn it with something else?

I mix a handful of pellets in with some corrigated cardboard and dried wood

 

[RoofTops]

Try it and let us know how you get on - but the wood will need to be very dry otherwise it simply won't stay alight in the smoker.

Lavender oil is one of those mysterious essential oils which might be the salvation of us all with respect to varroa. You can start reading from here: http://www.culturaapicola.com.ar/apuntes/sanidad/varroa/control varroa mite oil.pdf
But skipping to the end the conclusion is ... it doesn't work.

 

[Andy Duff]

FM is right, burning oily wood in a smoker produces a lot of nasty tar, probably carcinogenic, I would not want to breathe it, so why would your bees?

 

[AndyJThompson]

Last year I used shredded card board but the heat and density of the smoke worried me, with the abundence of natural waste around within the garden I am reluctant to buy in smoker fuel.

 

[onriver]

My friends who share the bees were very keen on trying lavender, which has probably less (or at least different) strange chemicals than the cardboard I usually use. Smelt OK but went out if left for more than 2 minutes..... Our compromise, which felt a bit tokenistic, was to use both

 

[BeeJayBee]

I've used lavender stalks wrapped into a roll with some corrugated card. No idea if the bees preferred it to dried leaves, but it worked, it burned and it smelled reasonable too.

 

[psafloyd]

My bees HATE cardboard but were nice as pie with lavender, orange peel, pistachio shells and grass.

 

[psafloyd]

FM is right, burning oily wood in a smoker produces a lot of nasty tar, probably carcinogenic, I would not want to breathe it, so why would your bees?

I have found it produces no more tar than cardboard and smells an awful lot better. Burns cooler, too and you use relatively little of it.

 

[drstitson]

Loads of people use lavender trimmings, me included. usually along with crumpled egg box and walnut leaves.

 

[Finman]

.
My experience is that grass is one the worst smoking stuff. - And why, too much thick smoke = tar. It must be very angry hive if I use that kind of stuff.

The most important is that it burns long time with small smoke.
When I find a good source of rotten wood, I take it 50-100 litre box and dry up. I first test that it burns with proper speed.

I have found too good sphagnum peat which burns perfectly. Perhaps it sometimes need rotten wood to keep smoke on.

If stuff is moist, I dry up it in micro wave oven.

 

[Suzi Q]

I dry dead wood next to a radiator, the cat loves it!

 

[victor meldrew]

All this talk of " The bees like this and that smoker fuel"
is plainly daft!.
Bees are afraid of smoke as it precedes fire !
Aroma , coolness ,etc is for the comfort of the beekeeper.
The fuel that causes the bees to take up honey in preparation for an abscond the quickest would rank high in the list of preferences (by the beekeeper)?
VM