Smoke irritation - advice welcome

[BernardBlack]

I use Thornes Cotton Cartridges (CC) fuel in my smoker.

If the breeze has blown the smoke near me when inspecting hive or when lighting, my nose and throat become irritated for 2/3 days afterwards. Feels like I'm getting a cold; runny/itchy nose, sneezing. Annoys the back of throat and lining of the nose too.

Anyone experienced this using the CC fuel? Is there another type which might be better suited? Or is this something I'm just going to have to put up with?

Any help or advice would be welcome.

 

[alldigging]

Try pet sawdust type bedding. It's only about a quid and available in all sorts of shops.

If you know someone with a planer then they'll make nice wood shavings that smoke nicely too.

 

[bingevader]

For one hive, a bit of news paper and some shredded cardboard should do.
Works for me.

 

[its.only.money]

Had an arborist come and remove a fallen apple tree recently. They gave me a nice big bag of the chippings which should last a goodly while. After leaving chippings to dry out they produce a very pleasant smoke

 

[Poly Hive]

Paying for fuel to burn in a smoker is just painful so...

Find a really rotten but dry tree. Or at least dry further into the trunk as most of them are lying on the ground.

Harvest some of the dry crumbly rotten wood and there you are, free very good cool smoke fuel.

PH

 

[Uncle Betty]

Had an arborist come and remove a fallen apple tree recently. They gave me a nice big bag of the chippings which should last a goodly while. After leaving chippings to dry out they produce a very pleasant smoke

They do indeed, but I find now that the smoker is heavily tarred. Are you finding the same ?

 

[its.only.money]

I find now that the smoker is heavily tarred. Are you finding the same ?

Yes, it's true, I've had the same, only in the lid though. Not been much of a problem so far.

 

[Teemore]

The tar only becomes an issue if you oversmoke the bees. While extracting honey for a neighbouring beekeeper in 2016, I had the opportunity of tasting smoked honey.... He now uses a water mister when checking on his bees.
If you find you need smoke when working with your bees, just remember that you are not creating a smokescreen. A couple of wee puffs of smoke from time to time should be enough .
I am in the camp of using chippings mixed with a couple of different "sizes" of sawdust gathered up after cutting firewood.
In the past, rotten birch wood has been flagged as being a good smoker fuel and a low tar variant at that.

 

[pargyle]

I use the shavings and dust from my woodturnings ..it's generally hardwood or fruitwoods - burns slowly, nice smelling, not at all acrid, easy to get going and free ! Mind you - I don't often have to used smoke on the actual hives - I just have it going in the middle of my apiary on a just in case basis ... possibly the light drifting of smoke from the smoker on the ground is enough to do the trick. Pretty laid back bees I keep.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I use Thornes Cotton Cartridges (CC) fuel in my smoker.

If the breeze has blown the smoke near me when inspecting hive or when lighting, my nose and throat become irritated for 2/3 days afterwards. Feels like I'm getting a cold; runny/itchy nose, sneezing. Annoys the back of throat and lining of the nose too.

Anyone experienced this using the CC fuel? Is there another type which might be better suited? Or is this something I'm just going to have to put up with?

Any help or advice would be welcome.

How do you think the bees feel? I think there's too much of an obsession of using smoke.
Use less
A lot less.
Nowadays I hardly bother with using smoke on the bees, it makes little difference, I just keep the smoker handy just in case they get a bit stroppy or need clearing down when putting the hive back together.
I find that in a lot of instances it's the smoke that causes aggression not solves it.
When I was out in Africa I met beekeepers taught by British beeks who had been told that gouts and gouts of smoke was the only way to ensure calm bees when opening up - it was so bad that the toast tasted like I'd spread a kipper on it not honey!! I quickly found that the bees were way much calmer when I didn't use smoke at all.

 

[Swarm]

Rotten wood, collect it now and dry it over winter.

 

[Millet]

Dry hay works well but like mentioned previously i find smoke aggravates them more than when it is not used, since getting my new Queens this year i have not used the smoker once, prior to these Queens my other bees where mental enough without smoking them, so bad infact that the odd one would attack the hole in the smoker and burn to death, and with them angry bees the only time it was used was to smoke myself to try and get rid of the bees following the attack pheromone on my gloves and suit.

 

[Levitt53]

You’ve reminded me that I found some great old logs when out walking the dog the other day. I left them by the entrance but forgot to go back and pick them up. Must do that tomorrow. I’ve been keeping bees for 2 years and have never bought anything to use in the smoker. A bit of wood and dried old tea bags works great once you get it going.