[music]
In this video I want to talk about using
a bee smoker.
We'll explain the parts of the smoker,
how to operate it, and a bit about the safety,
and how it actually works
to keep bees calm and easy to work with.
So the smoker is made up of two main parts.
The bellows, this part here,
when we squeeze that it forces air through
into the can.
We get a fire going inside the can
and then when we puff that
the air moves up and through and out
this funnel part here.
So inside the smoker
we have a grate at the bottom
and you can see the inside of the funnel
there as well.
So what we'll do is we'll get started
and light that up.
My preference is to use wood shavings.
They're sold at
agricultural supply locations
as animal bedding.
So we start the fire with newspaper
just like starting a camp fire
and then we add in the wood shavings.
Other people use dried cow manure,
sumac bobs, quite a variety of materials,
but I would caution that you
don't want to be using any man made materials
that may have chemicals in them
because you do end up breathing
quite a bit of smoke.
So we'll get this started
to get a sheet of newspaper
like that crumple it up into a loose ball
and then we have a lighter attached
to a string here so we don't lose track
of that, but I'll light that right inside
the pail so that it's out of the wind
fire moves up so we start at the bottom
and then once it's going we transfer it
into the smoker and as you transfer it
in you puff away at the smoker.
We get flames coming out you
can hear it go woof woof woof so
you know it's going well.
There's that woof woof woof.
And we pump away at the smoker.
We've got flames, we've got a bit of smoke.
Big handfuls of shavings going in there.
And ideally you stand a bit up wind from this.
So we just keep adding the shavings in there
and then what we do is take another sheet
of newspaper crumple it up into a ball
and add it on top.
So that consolidates all the fuel within there,
so that when we tip the smoker over,
the fuel all stays in place.
I'll just close that lid up there, so you can
see now we can tip it like this
and the shavings aren't blowing out
because of that little newspaper plug
we put on the top.
When we are lighting a smoker
we make sure we don't leave it sitting
on top of where the debris will be falling
because as you puff the smoker the air
will pick up that debris
and blow it into this tube and clog it.
So we hold it up in the air while we
are lighting it, and you just keep puffing away
for a few minutes until it is going nicely there
and you can see that smoke is nice and white
and if I blow it on my arm it's quite cool.
If it gets blue or you have any sparks
or certainly flames coming out of there
then that means it's time to add more fuel.
Using it in about fifteen minutes or
so we'll need to add more fuel
and to do that we just open it up,
take out the plug and add more fuel
as need be.
So it's good to practice doing this
so you make sure you're confident in
getting a smoker going and keeping it going.
When you're done using it in the bee yard
it is a bit of a safety issue, you've got a
fire going in here, and so you can either take
the fuel out, dump it on the ground
and stomp it out, you have to be very
careful if you're going to be doing that
or you can grab up some grass
bend it in two, give it a bit of a twist
and then screw that in there and that will
plug up the smoker and so it won't continue
to burn.
When you're transporting it
it needs to be transported in a way
that it's not going to fall over and open up
or it could start a vehicle on fire,
so we do have to be pretty careful with these
when we're transporting them,
but that is basically how you get it going.
Now to use the smoker
we puff the smoke at the entrance to the colony
so we'll just puff smoke at the entrance there
and that gets the guard bees to go in
and they eat honey.
So while they are eating honey they are not
defending the hive.
The smoke works in three different ways, that's one.
It is also a bit of a repellent so the bees
move away from the smoke
it makes it easier to put your hands where you
want within the hive.
The other thing that the smoke does is it
it interrupts their communication,
their scent communication.
If one bee becomes agitated it produces
alarm pheromone
and that basically tells all the other bees
to respond aggressively.
When we puff smoke inside the hive we
can short circuit that communication, all
they smell is smoke and they can't communicate
in that manner, but the bees that go in and eat honey,
they are busy gorging and filling up on honey
and so that gives them something else to do
so they are not defending the hive.
That's about it for the smoker.
Just a word of caution: Make sure that you
take good care because you do create fires and
that's it for now.