Lighting and managing a smoker

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What smoke actually does

Not what most people are told. Smoke does not mask the alarm pheromone specifically. It degrades the bees’ sense of smell in general, so their response to floral odours drops as well. 3

It wears off. Antennal responsiveness comes back within about 10 to 20 minutes. That is your working window, and the reason a long inspection needs a second puff rather than one big cloud at the start.

Smoke also makes a bee less likely to actually deliver venom when she stings. In one study, under smoke roughly half as many bees released the venom droplet compared with unsmoked controls. 4

The old story about smoke making bees gorge on honey and become docile is half true. They do gorge, and it lasts a couple of hours. 5 But that has never been shown to be the reason they are calmer, so treat it as a nice fact rather than the mechanism.

How much to use

Less than you think. The NBU is direct about this: use smoke sparingly, to clear the bees out of the space you are about to work in, rather than to let them know you are coming. 1

The announce-yourself puff at the entrance is a habit, not a technique, and the NBU words its advice as an explicit contrast with it.

Smoke from the top down, not from the bottom. Smoking underneath drives bees upwards into the space you are opening. A gentle waft across the top bars moves them down so frames come out without crushing anybody.

Use it again at the end, to move bees off the box edges before you put the hive back together. 2

Fuel

You want fuel that burns slowly and gives a cool smoke for a decent length of time. The NBU suggests dried wood chips, hay or straw, pine cones, twigs or rotten wood, and says a mixture is often best. Suppliers sell fuel and pellets too. 6

Hot smoke is the sign you have got it wrong. If you can feel heat at the nozzle, it is too hot for the bees.

What not to burn. This matters more than people assume:

• Nothing treated, painted, glued or preserved. The government’s rules for burning wood on campfires and bonfires allow only visibly clean waste wood, and exclude anything painted, coated or treated with chemical preservatives. 7 That is written about open fires rather than smokers, but it is the closest thing to a rule and the chemistry does not care what shape the fire is in.
• No plastic, no synthetic string, no packaging.
• Nothing damp. Wet wood smoulders dirtily instead of burning clean, and damp fuel is also why your smoker keeps going out.

Lighting it

Light it away from the hive, and before you put your veil up, so a flare-up cannot throw sparks onto the mesh. 1

The method that works, whatever the weather:

1. Get a small, genuinely fierce flame going in the bottom on something that catches easily.
2. Puff steadily while you feed small amounts on top. Do not smother it.
3. Build up to coarser fuel only once the bottom is properly alight.
4. Pack it down loosely and fill the chamber. A full smoker stays lit; a half empty one does not.
5. Check it gives cool white smoke when you puff, with no flame at the nozzle.

The commonest mistake is going too fast. Two minutes spent getting a real fire going saves relighting it three times in the apiary.

Wet and humid days

Damp fuel is the whole problem, so the answer is preparation rather than technique. Keep a sealed tub of dry fuel in the car and treat anything you pick up in the apiary as kindling at best.

On a wet day, use more of a fine dry starter than usual, build slower, and pack looser so air can get through. A smoker that is struggling wants air, not more fuel.

Note also that the NBU says not to start an examination in poor weather at all. 1 A wet day is often the answer to the smoker problem.

Cool and cloudy days

Cool and overcast is when more of the colony is at home, and bees are generally less obliging. Forage matters too: the NBU notes that colonies can be more defensive just after a nectar flow has ended. 1

The temptation is to use more smoke. Use the same amount, but be quicker and less disruptive. And keep the temperature rule in view: the NBU says colonies should not be inspected below 10 °C, and between 10 and 14 °C only opened quickly. 8 The last proper look before winter covers that end of the season.

Hot weather and fire

This is the section that matters most, and it is not really about bees.

A lit smoker gets hot enough to melt a polystyrene roof, and its sparks can start a fire on dry ground. 6 Put it somewhere safe every time you set it down: not on a poly hive, not in dry grass. 1

A smoker box, which is simply a fireproof box the smoker sits in, solves this for holding it, moving it and storing it, and the NBU says it reduces the risk of an accidental fire.

In a dry spell, treat the apiary the way you would treat a barbecue on a heath. Grass and heath fires in a heatwave start from very little and move fast.

If you keep bees on land that is not yours, check the landowner’s conditions before you light anything in a drought, and check whether any local restriction is in force. You are responsible for a fire you start. We are not going to tell you what the rules are on your particular site.

Putting it out, and taking it home

The NBU states plainly that smokers have been known to cause fires in cars and garages. 6 That is the single most useful sentence on this page.

A plugged smoker is not a cold smoker. Fire services make the same point about barbecues: something that looks out can hold enough heat to start a fire later. 9

• Empty it out onto bare earth and soak it, or seal it in a metal smoker box and let it go out for want of air.
• Do not empty it into dry grass, a hedge bottom or a plastic bin.
• Let it get properly cold before it goes in a shed.

One safety recall worth knowing

In August 2023 the government issued a product recall for a large stainless steel beehive smoker, models XM9916, M5002 and XM5002, because the leather bellows could contain a small amount of chrysotile asbestos. It was recalled from end users. 11 That alert concerned those specific models and says nothing about any other smoker or supplier, but if you bought a cheap import around then it is worth checking what you have.

The short version

• Smoke dulls their sense of smell for 10 to 20 minutes. That is the window.
• Use it sparingly, across the top bars, downwards.
• Dry, untreated fuel only. Nothing painted, glued or plastic.
• Light it away from the hive and before the veil goes up.
• Never rest it on a poly roof or in dry grass.
• A plugged smoker is not a cold smoker. Put it out properly.
• Carry it in a metal box, not in the cabin of the car.