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Got yelled at by a beekeeper for using the wrong smoker fuel
I was at a local apiary workshop last Saturday in Austin. I showed up with my pine needle smoker fuel because that's what some YouTube guy recommended. The beekeeper running the place stopped me mid-demo and said pine resin ruins the honeycomb filters. She told me to use burlap or wood pellets instead. Has anyone else had their whole setup called out like that at a workshop?
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caseythompson29d agoMost Upvoted
Five years I've been keeping bees here in the Hill Country and I've never once had a problem with pine needles. That beekeeper was probably just having a bad day and needed someone to yell at. I use clean, dry pine straw from under my own trees and my honey filters have never been ruined. YouTube guy might not be an expert but he's not wrong about it being cheap and easy to find. A lot of these old timers just hate change and want everyone to do things exactly like their grandpappy did in 1952.
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irisowens29d ago
My buddy Tom had the exact same thing happen at a bee club meetup in San Antonio. He lugged in this big bag of dried eucalyptus leaves he swore worked perfect. The second the smoke started, this old timer walks up, grabs his arm, and says eucalyptus smoke makes the bees mad and ruins the comb. Tom spent the whole rest of the meetup trying to scrape the smell off his hive tool while everyone else used plain cardboard from the recycling bin. He still gets teased about it every time someone brings up smoker fuel.
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That thing about eucalyptus ruining the comb is a good point @irisowens. I've heard the same from a few keepers here in California. Tom really got the full treatment with the hive tool scraping though. Poor guy probably still smells eucalyptus every time he opens his smoker. At least he provided some free entertainment for the club.
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