Beekeeping Tips
Smoker Tip
Rolling grass and shoving it into the spout of the smoker cools the smoke as it is filtered through but do not totally block the spout as the smoker will go out.
Not Smoker Fuel
DON'T use these in a smoker
- Paper with plasticized coatings, glue, binders or inks
- Treated, painted, or finished wood chips
- Man-made fibers or natural fibers with artificial colorants
- Cutting clean wood with a chain saw will taint the wood chips with chain oil
(from beehacker.com)
Smoker Fuel
What can you burn in your smoker?
- Rotten wood
- Cardboard *
- Dried Grass
- Pine Cones
- Compressed wood pellets
- Twigs
- Hardwood chips
- Hessian
- Bracken
- Herbs
* careful of burning ink on cardboard, it can be poisonous to the bees.
Winter tips
- Ensure bees have enough stores, of honey and sugar syrup, to make it through the winter.
- If stores start to get low feed fondant or small amounts of weak sugar syrup.
- Reduce the size of the hive entrance to protect from winter winds and mice.
- Ensure that hive entrances are not blocked by insulation / snow / dead bees etc.
- Protect from woodpeckers with chicken wire fixed away from the wood