Fuel and May on the Snoqualmie

 I've been loading smokers for a long time, and  have tried pretty much every fuel there is.  Even so, I'm still not sure what's the best fuel. For the past 4 or 5 years I've used rolled corrugated cardboard- but it takes time to make-and I have to order it and roll it, cut it, etc. Burlap, pine needles, cedar shavings, pellet stove fuel- etc., I've tried them all. Keeping it going, relying on it when it's needed, that's the main issue. 

 I do a lot of wood working, and so have started cutting up small "bouillons" , cubes basically, of scrap, that light quickly (with newspaper), and keep lit, smoldering.  There's substance to them- BTU's. Old busted frames with wax on them seem to work really well, and instead of using them for kindling on our wood stove, I'm chop sawing them up for the smoker.  I can't say it's the last thing I'll ever try- but so far, I have to say, once it gets going, it stays lit, and if one can remember to replenish a little every 20 min or so, it doesn't go out. I just make a box of these in my kit, and dump them in. It seems to be working excellently- as measure by how often I now drive home with a smoker still smoking in the back of my truck (or plugged with grass to stop it).

One apiary I have is at a friend's south of me, on the most bee- friendly land I've seen- packed with the Triumvirate of Maple, Blackberry, and Knotweed, along the river (lots of water!) and isolated. I have just 4 hives there now, in a cut out glen in the blackberry. They're doing OK- not great- but my friend's hive. on the left below, is packed, with 2 full supers of Maple already.

Here's letting the smoker burn a while- get it hot before dumping in more bouillon. 

Today's task was looking for  queen cells in a hive I Demareed 10 days ago  (you can see the excluder), I went through #2 first to find "egg ready" frames and pull them, then opened #1 to find brood to move up.

After 10 days there can be 4 or 5 frames to move.

Being out in the valley, without a soul around, with a few hives and a few tools, and wide fields and the river and sun, it's as good a beekeeping experience I could wish. It sure goes up and down, and with endless challenges, but a great thing to be doing.