for an Old Flame

If you keep bees it is no use trying to play catch up during the swarming season.  Everything has to be made ready before hand.

This includes my trusty old smoker.  When a fire is lit inside this apparatus and using dry but rotten timber it produces some nice puffs of smoke. However with constant use it becomes clogged up with tar.  So today my job was to clean it out.

The smoke is used to calm the bees and to encorage them to move away from where one is working inside the hive.

One can buy special fuel cartridges for the smoke but it is really only necessary to go for a walk after a full Irish Sea gale and pick up your own timber.

This timber is them left to dry for two or three months before it is ready for use.