I used to use a smoker fueled with dry twigs & pinecones with a wad of fresh green grass stuffed into the top cone to "cool" the smoke... with all of the hassles that you describe. For the last couple of years I have used a generic plastic misting bottle with a solution of sugar water and a couple of drops of vanilla. Works great.
Spritzing them with a light sugar water mix I have also done and works good. Never thought about the vanilla. Might try that. I know when I use the sprites bottle they are less flighty, but don’t go down into the hive where I need them to be. But yes it does work for me on windy days, where smoke goes everywhere but onto the hive edges.
Dear Sir, I am a 4th generation beekeeper. My grandfather, father, and myself always use pine straw to start then put in the charcoal from left over wood (PUFF ABOUT 50 times) and then more fat lighter chips (or a cut up 2x4 with high resin content) and chopped into small 3/4 x 1 1/2 in. pieces. As a boy I got a bad burn when letting the (didn't have a guard on it) smoker lean next to my leg. I am a USMC disabled vet and my left eye does not blink right so hassle World of Beekeeping. Also, I am the president of the Gulf County (Florida USA) beekeepers Asssociation and will' innovation
Already subscribed, shared to F/B, as it’s good to see modern technology being embraced by beekeepers. I start my smoker with pieces of old egg boxes, then I have a large sack of ready mixed wood shavings, mini pine cones, lavender stems., a few dried bay leaves and dried pine needles which are all packed tight. Burns well and lasts for about two hours on one “stuffing”!!
I only light the smoker when a particular hive is super aggressive and only use leaves or bark of an *aromatic eucalyptus tree* (which I've grown from seeds I brought from Portugal when on holiday) From my observation, it helps them calm down and it is very pleasant to the nose (as long as it's not done in excessive amounts). In summer months, I resort to using a spray bottle with clean drinking water and sometimes lightly sweetened with sugar which they love. If you wish to have your traditional smoker continue burning you can add twigs or small branches of trees or even circular charcoal blocks (the ones used in churches to burn frankincense and mir) as they continue to cinder even when not bellowing.
This looks like a fab product . Just overwintered my first ever bees a swarm from last year. So I am learning all the time your channel has been a real inspiration. I only have a small smoker but am getting more bees this season so will be upgrading some of my equipment and this looks fab bit of kit.
I love the look of this and really look forward to seeing how you get on with it, as many people have mentioned already the cost element is going to be what holds me back from picking one up. As someone that used to smoke 20 a day and swapped over to a vape several years ago can appreciate how this can be a benefit. As far as fuel goes for my current smoker, sticks and hay seems to work for me! As always great video hope you are well.
I love this idea!! I don’t like using my smoker as it burns my eyes and seems to aggravate my bees. For smoker fuel I layer smoker pellets, burlap, dried sumac, and grasses
Love your unbiased reviews on new innovative products. It's one of the things which keeps your videos interesting along with sharing your professional tips. Can see its very proffessionally built and has had a lot of research put in to getting it not only work perfectly but look right as well. This is a product I'd love to have and will likely use it to make car smell nice too! Think car traders may find a use for this too!
I add layers to fuel my smoker. From the bottom up, first newspaper, (which I light then pop in) then some torn up cardboard on top, then a sprinkling of wood chips/saw dust followed by a layer of wood off cuts twigs, dried pine cones. After after a few minutes I open up the smoker and pack it with more wood material as the lower layers will have burned down really quickly, this gives me a good bit of burn time for inspections.
I have been following the development of this product for quite a few years and the progress from the first unit tests is amazing. The concept of using vaping instead of burning material is very good and I hope they do well. The cost is the big stumbling block but maybe the UK and EU beekeepers can afford this expense. The type of fuel that we use in the current design of smoker is optional but keeping the smoker going when working alone is the problem. My solution was to modify my smoker. First drill a 10 mm hole just above the fire grate (25mm from the bottom) , make up a small flap to cover the hole and fix with a self tap screw, so hole can up opened or closed. Beer can metal is good (drink beer first). Fill the smoker with your favorite fuel and finish with a hand full of green grass on the top. Light the smoker through the hole using a small blow torch. This will light the bottom section of the fuel and allow the smoke to be filtered through the material and green grass before reaching the bees giving cool smoke with no possibility of sparks. Also allows for one handed lighting of the smoker if it goes out when working alone. Too late to win the prize but still happy with my current method of smoking.
My smoker is rammed with cardboard and tumble drier lint and topped with Ferns from the woodlands to cool the smoke. It never goes out however I stink, my car stinks (even with using a smoker box) and I was constantly paranoid I'd set my boot alight. Being a fireman at work that would be rather embarrassing 😳 Converting from Cedar to Poly Hives stopped me resting the smoker over the runners 🥴 what a revolutionary bit of kit for hobbyists 🐝 🐝
I have used newspaper to get it going then Wood chips or decaying wood. I don't like cardboard boxes as they are treated with a fire retardant that gives a chemical taste to the smoke that I don't like. Vaping sounds like a good solution if it drives the bees down from the top of the frames.
From California now in Oregon I use Marijuana trim and 1970 music. it souths the bees and the beekeeper. Ok now that I have your attention I do use pine shavings or wood pellets. I need this I have 10 hives and been beekeeping for 15 years in Oregon.
This looks a brilliant product on counts of health, safety and comfort but I would also add time saving - I don't know about you but it can take me an inordinate percentage of time: lighting, keeping alight and then extinguishing the smoker, not to speak of cleaning it out. Another bonus for me would be that, because I seek to recycle anything that burns, to use in my smoker, those things actually kept in boxes and bags in my apiary cabin end up taking up quite a bit of space I can ill afford to clutter up. So, seeing as you asked, I use: rolled up cardboard in toilert rolls, pine cones, bits of dried undergrowth/hay, egg boxes torn into pieces, twigs and, believe it or not, the bits of wood that I shave off frames when assembling them. TBH, storing all this stuff, including carting it around from home to apiary, as well as keeping it dry has become something of a headache - Apisolis solution seems the perfect solution! Finally, and this is so timely, I am about to start education courses for children aged 5-14 (mostly 7-10) and it appears this would really hit the jackpot here from the health and safety angle in work with children as well as being so easy for them to use. It really seems the perfect answer to so many issues: time, space, carriage, health (us and bees), safety (I have had some close misses) as well as ease of use (for me and kids) that I'm sure I would never again vascilate as to whether to use my smoker because of it's clearly outdated cumbersomeness!
I usually woodships from a planer. And sometimes needles of Pinus Strobus. The needles burn quick but smell nice and give a smooth cold smoke. Really do like the idea of the new technique of smokers.
Some facts are required here: Overall, vaping has been found to cause similar effects as smoking on lung function and cardiovascular function. The simplest answer is to stay up wind of the smoker and use it very sparingly.
i use wood shavings from a woodworking facility and its a blend of mahogany wood and red grandis wood. i found out that this blend produces a sweet smelling smoke and does not attack the lungs and eyes as much as pine needles and cardboard smoke. if you can get your hands on wood shavings from these kinds of wood i highly reccomend them ; )
I like the look of this and will follow your trial with interest. I like that it can be charged with a USB cable meaning I could plug it in the car on the drive between outapiaries to give it a quick boost. Will be interested to see how effective it is on the bees and what the cost of the consumables is in the UK. I currently use hessian sack, egg boxes and dried grass pellets (sheep feed). All of these give a nice clean, cool smoke and little ash left. However I still end up stinking at the end of the day. Top tip - don't use standard pine woodchips as produced for eco-boilers or garden chimneas; they leave a hell of a lot of tar / pine resin in the smoker.
This sounds and looks like a really awesome product. This is my first year bee keeping so I was intending to use a traditional smoker (from abelo) and probably using cardboard (as I have ALOT of it). After seeing this, I am extremely tempted to pick one of these up from thorne
As an absolute novice I have not even lit a smoker yet - let alone considered what fuel I will be using. What I do know is that as our on line mentor Bee on The Solent will be following the advice of Black Mountain Honey. An electronic Smoker could well make our journey into Bee Keeping a lot smoother. Please consider us for the win
I’ve bought an Apisolis after seeing your video but they don’t include the liquid so cannot do a test .Do you think they are really good and can you use another liquid that I could make ? They say not a good idea what do you think
I have used cardboard for years because I get it for free as it ends up being a waste product from my work. Hessian I do like and I use it as well and I can get it in a roll through the building trade. ( Its used for protecting pointing on stone walls from frost when its newly done). If your anything like me I always manage to smoke myself out lol
Might give that a try this year I remember seeing you with a stove log in your smoker which is a great idea if you lots of hives to go through. One of mine needs a good smoke or its like being in a rain storm with the bees pinging off the veil. Bit of a requeen very shortly me thinks
I use lavender buds and pine needles. I make up small cartridges by stuffing the buds into toilet rolls. Sometimes I add BBQ smoking pellets. I will be sharing this to out bee keeping group on Facebook (I share a lot of your stuff LOL)
Brilliant Idea, I am asthmatic so we use dried mullien leaves as fuel in our smoker which works really well but definitely very interested in the new vaporiser if I can justify the price tag with my wife. Thanks for the honest no nonsense review
I use pine shavings in my Smoker .This new idea for me would be fantastic I live in Portugal and we have a fire ban from April to October .I have 21 hives so for this the solice vapour would be the best thing ever .Your demonstration was brilliant for me this is a bit of kit I cannot do without .Thanks so much for the test of this product .
Great idea. I live in California, drought and wildfires are a big issue.. During hot, dry summers using a smoker is dangerous. I currently use pine needles which not only makes you stink, it's also really sticky.
Here in the US I use dried pine needles. We have a couple trees in our yard. Not the little tiny ones the big long ones. Price is a bit much but when you only have a few hives, you spend more time playing with the smoker than in the hives.
in my smoker i used pine needles straw leaves with a paper starter. it is all the things on the ground on the walk to my hives. i am in Saskatchewan canada. love your videos
That looks wild handy! I use a mixture of pine cones, pine needles, hessian and corrugated card then I put a good fistful of green grass on top. It definitely can go for my eyes if the wind is the wrong direction. Good luck everyone!
I use pine needles in my smoker, which always makes me nervous because I'm in Southern California - drought stricken and high fire danger So Cal! I have two apiaries, one in a very remote location with no water source so I have to make certain to have a fire extinguisher with me just in case. This devise seems like a dream come true!
Compressed cotton production byproduct. I believe the US cotton industry used to landfill it but it's now available at American bee supply retailers. I put green grass on top to cool the smoke, filter embers and throttle combustion. It can burn very hot so additional green grass is periodically needed.
Wood shavings to start (gets really hot). And some sticks of oak which can last for a few hours depending on thickness. I finish with a few turns of green grass in the lid to help filter and cool the smoke.
Right now I use packaging from deliveries. But try to avoid using a smoker if i can cos i hate the smoke. Think this is a great way to help get my kids involved and think i would feel happier about using smoke around them.
The vaporizer looks good and well made, I use a mist sprayer with a very weak solution of sugar syrup. And the bees do not make the roar that smoke does,
Looks interesting I think they would be great if you are getting a swarm out of someone’s house at least you wouldn’t make their house stick of smoke! They are already for sale at Thornes but don’t know if I could commit to the £170 price tag. For the moment I’ll have to stick to my Dadant and hay for fuel. Unless someone wants to give me one to try, lol anyway keep the videos coming I always enjoy them
Here in Portugal we use pine needles, they tend to give a bit cooler smoke. This product would be great for us as Smokers are banned here in the summer due to fire risk
First year beekeepers with a traditional smoker and I use Cedar wood chips. But I must say the traditional smoker is just to Inconsistent and knowing my daughter Ezrah what’s to start beekeeping this year I will have to try this product out. Thanks for another great video!
I usually use cardboard, wood offcuts, straw, stick and lavender. This year in moving to a site that is a gas network pumping station so I have liquid smoke to try out. As you can guess this would be a great product for me as I content to go boom and cut off the gas supply to the West of Scotland!
I use a lump of natural charcoal in the bottom, then add frankincense (church incense ) and pinecones, top with pine shavings or pine needles, or dried cannabis leaves.
Hellow Lawrence. I use pine leaves because there is plenty of them all around the year. Another disadvantage of smoking is the bad smell it leaves on the beekeeper's suit and clothes
I’m in the USA so I’m not sure when we’ll see the new product. I use pine needles in my smoker and love the smell. Think of a pine forest. It doesn’t cause any choking problem. I do use it very lightly on the bees. I can say the bees move away from it as expected but the sound in the hive immediately increases and seems a little alarming when you’re expecting a calming response. Not sure if other medium causes the same reaction.
I bought and tried this product .... but it seemed to make my bees react more aggressively rather than less ... I hope my bees were just having a bad day, and will continue to test further. Would love if they offered actual vaporized smoke as an option, instead of just the "perfume" vapor, as I have more confidence that would work. Also, as long as they are offering a "vaping" type device, I would love to see them dispense with the traditional device (bellows) design, and go hi tech all the way - why not a wrist mounted vap pen or something awesome to avoid having to pick up/set down yet another tool while inspecting hives? I love to see these attempts at innovation, but feels like they are only half-baked at this point. Still happy to be supporting such efforts - the old smokers are antiquated and a dangerous liability at this point - about time we get better options.
I love the iterative design ideas here. Its really good feedback. Like a pocket mounted wand dispenser. Would be so handy. I always leave things lying around. My bees definitely react well to the vapour much in the same way they do the smoke.
I find burlap the easiest thing to use. I used to use pine cones but for some reason my bees attacked my smoker and killed themselves. I melted my veil twice so would welcome an alternative. Love it.
Looks impressive, everything I light my smoker I always think there must be another option or something that can be invented, tuned in to my favourite you tube bee channel, and the future of smokers is there. At the moment I use egg boxes and wood pellets and also this winter got a stock of real old dead tree wood which will smoulder too. I would love to try the new type smoker as my bees are getting fed up with me talking to them about the future of smokers 😀
At the beginning and end of the season using a smoker is useful,I have designed and try new ideas that may be helpful or not but I try to avoid a smoker and my suit in summer that way I can assess my hives because in normal conditions I shouldn’t feel threatened,I use pine needles from my local park because I found them to be a free cold burning easygoing fuel,I would recommend them to new beekeepers but thay do have sharp tips so use gloves before scooping up a bag full
This could work perfectly in tandem with regular smokers. In the dry, flaming hot part of summer, one of my land owners asks (completely understandably and i 100% do as he asks) that i not use a smoker (and sometimes even not drive into the land) due to fire risk. But that's often when i want my smoker most! I use burlap This bee vaper could be the perfect solution
I dont use a smoker that often for all the reasons you said but when i do i use old rotten dried wood. I have a specific consistency that i like so if i see any i collect a bag full and put it in the shed to dry out.
Hi Laurence. I’m using a mix of pine needles / cones and cardboard. I know what you mean about the cardboard smoke. It also aggravates my asthma too. This looks great.
Cool idea but that price is pretty stiff not to mention how nasty that thing will get from grabbing it with my sticky bee gloves after touching all that propolis.
I use dried cleaves from local trees- I get all the TECH I can for my Girls/bees… I think right now - with my two hives… the price point is a bit steep. I’m in San Francisco Bay Area… where Tech and Innovation meet. I look forward to seeing it in use thru out your season.
I got my 2 poly hives last year and I'm totally useless at lighting my Smoker. I have used cardboard but found it doesn't last very long. I normally use cotton husks but so far I've managed to burn my trainers when it a bit fell out.
I'm using pine needles. Love the smell and making the neighbors wonder what's burning - just kidding! This is perfect for me as I'm a backyard keeper with less than 10 hives. Hope they release it in the US. John
I only use smoke on occasion. I've got one line of bees from a swarm that is mean but the rest of the hives are generally easy to work. I use pine needles and small line sticks.
Aargh! Yet another gadget! I use a mix of shavings and dried lavender stalks. One of my sites is a lavender farm and there's loads of the stuff after they harvest the Lavender. The smoker is for back up though and I use water spray where possible. Too much smoke is always counter productive and I only use it if I need to.
Luckily enough to have some friends in the coffee game and get a few of their damaged coffee sack (hessian/burlap) which works well but this look interesting as just got an out apiary!
I would like to see if the bee vape would work on apis mellifera scutellata and adansonii, african honey bee. I live in northen Namibia where the 2 species border each other and african honey bees are generally quite aggressive. I use elefant dung that has been washed and dryed. And also use cardboard box. If it would work on african bees it would be a great game changer to rid with the traditional bee smoker.
Pine shavings .I live in Portugal so this would be fantastic for me as from April we have a fire ban and that includes smokers for bees .this ban will go on till October .I must try and get one .I have 21 hives
I saw these back a few years ago when it was a crowdfunder. It seemed to fizzle out which was a shame - the original video is still on YT if you search for Apisolis Naturally Active. Looking forward for tonights review.
I smoked cigarettes for 25 years then switched to vaping. I have been bee keeping for 3 years now using cardboard as the fuel. This is now the only time I smoke and why I still have a few lighters and burners kicking around. I am very interested because I have noticed the bees do react to my ecig vapor and the reaction is different with different flavours.
It’s the plastic bellows to me are going to be the week link. I use food grade burlap. But yeah, the plastic bellows are going to give out first. Plastic and bending over and over never work
I use shredded cardboard from around all the stuff I buy from Thornes! I've thought for a while that smokers for small scale beekeepers are a bit of a pain. Something that you can switch on and off as needed would be much better.
I’ve always used coastal grass in my smoker because that’s what I feed my livestock and have plenty on hand. It doesn’t look like these are available in the US yet. Bummer. Anyways, I’m already subscribed and will share this in both my Facebook beekeeping groups. Thanks for the great content!!
Love the concept, looking forward to seeing it in use, well done pal…. As usual. I’m a hessian guy through and through as all my hives are across farms.
