Favorite smoker fuel

[robk23678]

I've been using a combination of timothy hay and pine bedding together in the smoker.

[njfl]

Pine needles work very well, thought burn quickly.  Dry cow patties are the best smoker fuel I've ever tried.

[divemaster1963]

Best fuel I have found to date is cedar dog bedding. you get a 2Cubic foot bag for 6.00. lasts for ever and burns slow with a pleasent aroma that does not hurt my eyes and does not leave a bad odor.

john

[Better.to.Bee.than.not]

I use grapevines, pine needles and grass usually.

[olbow]

I use corb cobs. Break them up with a hammer so they light better and let the smoke roll.

[bhaktibees]

Hi folks. I'm a newbie (newbee?) To the buzz biz but have had horses for a few years. In reference to the suggestions to using bailing twine (from hay); please bear in mind that most bailing twine, even the jute or hemp, may be impregnated with a rodenticide (to discourage mice from opening your freshly bailed hay)
So ask questions before using it.

[hiram.ga.bee.man]

I have used pine shavings, cotton rags, dadant smoker fuel, hardwood leaves, combinations of all of the above and by far my favorite is pine straw. I bought two bales of pine straw at home depot, placed them in an old garbage can next to my beehives so i always have a readily available source of very dry smoker fuel. For me it works great. The trick is to get a good source of real hot pine straw coals so to speak, then pack it with dry straw, puff it till hot again and it will produce smoke for hours.

[Oblio13]

Lately I've been getting a raging inferno going with birch bark and pine cones, then I pack in some dried horse poop and/or sumac seed heads, and top it off with a wad of green grass to cool the smoke off. Works great, lasts a long time.

[forrestcav]

when I can get it going horse manure works great and is plentiful. I need to find some pine cones.

[capt44]

When I'm going to work a few hives I use wood shavings from my wood plane.
But when I'm going to work a lot of hives I use wood pellets for they will keep a smoke going for 4 hours or so.
The only draw back of wood pellets is it takes longer to get them smouldering.

[forrestcav]

plus I bet it's a real pain to fit a pallet into your smoker, unless you have a really BIG smoker.  :-D