Tip of the Day.......

[Raceyboy]

Went to Th*rnes the other day and i couldn't beleive what they was charging for a bit of hessian, £6.33!!!!! and you didn't get much either, so today i went to a certain supermarket, the one where 'every little helps' and bought 5 of the hessian bags for life for £1.50, you get 3 times more hessian at a fraction of the cost, you even get your points on your clubcard lol. If anybody else has any good tips please post them

 

[huntsman666]

Your local garden centre should have lots of corrugated cardboard (plain) boxes at their checkout. They're pleased to get rid of them.

Another great smoker material is dried horse droppings about the size of shredded wheat. (Cow dung is no good as the residual fibre is too small.))

Joke; What the similarity between blonds and cow pats?

The older they are, the easier it is to pick them up.

(I did say joke!!!)

Cost:- zilch!

 

[Raceyboy]

Your local garden centre should have lots of corrugated cardboard (plain) boxes at their checkout. They're pleased to get rid of them.

Another great smoker material is dried horse droppings about the size of shredded wheat. (Cow dung is no good as it has much finer fibre pieces.)

Joke; What the similarity between blonds and cow pats?

The older they are, the easier it is to pick them up.

(I did say joke!!!)

Cost:- zilch!

 

[susbees]

Another great smoker material is dried horse droppings about the size of shredded wheat. (Cow dung is no good as the residual fibre is too small.))

I shall go and quiz the llamas as to their staple length....!!

 

[Luminos]

Your local garden centre should have lots of corrugated cardboard (plain) boxes at their checkout. They're pleased to get rid of them.

Another great smoker material is dried horse droppings about the size of shredded wheat. (Cow dung is no good as the residual fibre is too small.))

Joke; What the similarity between blonds and cow pats?

The older they are, the easier it is to pick them up.

(I did say joke!!!)

Cost:- zilch!

I think I need to buy a bigger smoker, or it could get messy...

 

[drstitson]

compressed grass/hay animal feed pellets (without molasses) work too (once lit) but do stink like a fire in a silage pit.

 

[Poly Hive]

Very rotten wood. Lovely cool smoke.

Have a horse field near us with some composted dung which is seriously old so will try an experiment with that.

PH

 

[huntsman666]

Not composted but whole, like little nuggets.

 

[Lizard165]

Also speak to your local carpet shop ( I own one so I know)! Most of the tufted carpet comes with a natural hessian backing and there are always tailends left on rolls from when they run the the rolls through the backing machine. I currently have a 750KG bale that I use to give chunks from to members of my association. Trouble is I generate more than I can give away so excess gets sent for recycling into fertiliser pellets.

Something else that I generate lots of are cardboard tubes, these are ideal for enticing hard to get to swarms into. Block the top hole and as they are nice and "grippy" they bees can walk up and attach themselves inside. Brilliant for the other side of a fence pole when there is mesh fencing.

 

[Raceyboy]

Also speak to your local carpet shop ( I own one so I know)! Most of the tufted carpet comes with a natural hessian backing and there are always tailends left on rolls from when they run the the rolls through the backing machine. I currently have a 750KG bale that I use to give chunks from to members of my association. Trouble is I generate more than I can give away so excess gets sent for recycling into fertiliser pellets.

Something else that I generate lots of are cardboard tubes, these are ideal for enticing hard to get to swarms into. Block the top hole and as they are nice and "grippy" they bees can walk up and attach themselves inside. Brilliant for the other side of a fence pole when there is mesh fencing.

Yep, thats a great tip

 

[MuswellMetro]

do not use Amazon packaging as the corrugated carboard amazon use contains a fire retardant

how to i know, i made up several corrugated roles of the stuff and the smoker kept on going out ..checked the bellow, checked the trivet, vents etc etc, changed the cardboard...vola

 

[Erichalfbee]

I use old rotten wood with herbs of the day on the top of the wood in the smoker once it's well alight. At the moment I'm using bay leaves or thyme but mint and rosemary works just as well. The smoke is cool and smells nice and the bees seem to be OK with it.