Does anybody have any good designs for a home made smoker . Thank you . Brian
I don't know of any real plans, but the concept is simple enough. A fruit juice can with a BIG soup can to hold the fuel inside and lots of holes, drill a hole down at the bottom to take the fresh air, and a bellows. How you shape the delivery seems to be up to the designer, but the Bellows is what got me confused. Two plates of plywood, a hinge, and a bedspring. You could kludge the cover for one from duct tape, but I can't imagine it would hold up to any kind of real work.
You can probably find one cheap enough.
I got a swarm the other day and did not have any gear with me at all. They were in a crack where two walls came together, I pulled out as many bees as I could reach with my hand. Tried using a cigarette but the ones they make now days go out if you do not puff on them, I DO NOT smoke as it makes me sick as a dog. Finally used some corrugated cardboard that was rolled up and it worked like a charm. Improvised on a whim.
Someone posted pictures and design of one once. Try a search.
Conrad Berube's site hosts some drawings of smoker diagram & other bee equipment you can fabricate yourself. Haven't tried myself but if more time would like to try.
Here is his link Smoker & other bee equipment idea's (http://www3.telus.net/conrad/appendc.htm)
I had this link in my favorites still, the smoker is at the toward the bottom of the page. http://web.utk.edu/~wu4you/My%204%20Acres/beekeeping/extraction.htm (http://web.utk.edu/~wu4you/My%204%20Acres/beekeeping/extraction.htm)
Thanks all for the ideas and links ,. Brian
Great link there.