Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: nepenthes on January 20, 2007, 05:51:35 pm

Title: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: nepenthes on January 20, 2007, 05:51:35 pm
Smokers are easy to start, but harder to get the right smoke. I'm pretty sure i got the right kind of smoke going and feel im set for the summer.

Now I couldn't figure out how to put the smoker OUT!

any suggestions?
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: newbee101 on January 20, 2007, 06:57:00 pm
Stick a cork in it.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Kathyp on January 20, 2007, 07:14:44 pm
i keep a bucket of water handy and just dump the smoker fuel into it when i'm done.  then i dump the water and fuel out on the gravel and it's dry by the next time i go to use it.  this won't work if you use fuel that will dissolve in water :-)  i have been using old burlap augmented with grass cuttings or pine cones. 
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Jerrymac on January 20, 2007, 08:22:31 pm
Ummm yeah what newbee101 said
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: buzzbeejr on January 20, 2007, 09:10:47 pm
if u have a fire ring we just dump it into there.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: lively Bee's on January 20, 2007, 11:02:41 pm
I just cram hay in the hole in the end of the smoker.  With no O2 the fire just snuffs its self out I also do this when I drive from bee yard to bee yard
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: nepenthes on January 21, 2007, 12:44:15 am
thanks. just wanted to use a smoker safe way, that didn't involve water..
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on January 21, 2007, 11:14:59 am
My choice of smoke suffocate.  I pull some grass, leaves, whatever is handy, stuff the hole and like said in previous reply, it puts it out immediately. I leave the "stuff" in the hole until the next time I am ready.  Never ever once had the coals ignite the hole stuffer.  It's amazing how quickly things smother when their is no air to fuel the flame.  Great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Kathyp on January 21, 2007, 12:06:55 pm
that smoker is pretty hot.  for those of you who suffocate your smoker, do you not worry that it remains so hot?  i guess it's an issue for me because my stuff is stored in the barn.......where do you all keep your things that's safe?  :-)
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: danno1800 on January 21, 2007, 12:30:31 pm
I also now put a wine cork in it to put it out. Before I learned that trick, I found that just laying it down on its side for a few minutes with the smoker hole pointing downhill put it out. Hope that helps. -Danno
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Jerrymac on January 21, 2007, 12:53:49 pm
that smoker is pretty hot.  for those of you who suffocate your smoker, do you not worry that it remains so hot?

My bees are only a hundred yards from the house, so when I am through with the smoker, if I use the smoker, I plug up the hole, sometimes just put duct tape over it, and leave it out on a brick or ground until it cools. It is usually in the back of my Durango with a lot of other beeking stuff.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Michael Bush on January 21, 2007, 02:00:21 pm
>Now I couldn't figure out how to put the smoker OUT!

Lay it on it's side and it will almost always go out.  Stuff some grass (or a cork if you have one) in the spout AND lay it on it's side and it will go out.  NEVER put a lit smoker in a truck or car unless it's where you can keep an eye on it and never have it where the wind is blowing in as you drive down the road and never have it where it can catch anything on fire if it bursts into flames.  The best thing to do is dump out the contents and douse that with some water.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: randydrivesabus on January 21, 2007, 02:50:56 pm
smother the fire like suggested (cork,etc) then leave it outside for a short time. doesnt take long to cool.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: DBoire on January 21, 2007, 06:42:23 pm
I cork it, and put in in old metal bucket that I have.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on January 21, 2007, 07:29:36 pm
I cork it, and put in in old metal bucket that I have.

I really like the idea of corks.  I have some of those.

DBoire.  Now that is about the best method that I have heard so far.  Metal bucket!!!  Fire and ash.

That is such a good idea, that I am going to get an old coffee tin and that is going to be another item for my bee stuff.

I have actually had the grass not stuffed in good enough and saw a little while later the smoker smoking again big time.  If it had fallen over there would have been some dirt caught on fire (LOL).  I keep my smoker outside in the dirt in the garden until I see it again.

Kathy, I don't think that you should ever put the smoker into the barn, unless it wass 100% surely put out.  You know what hay is like and man can it go up fast.  Why not keep a little bucket of water to douse the smoker with each time you are done.  I think that would be an awesome idea.  Great day. Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: amymcg on January 21, 2007, 07:43:31 pm
I dump the contents of mine in the driveway then stomp it out. I leave my smoker in the driveway until it's cool, then put it away.

I never thought of using a cork. There's plenty of them around here :-D
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on January 21, 2007, 07:57:53 pm
Hmm..getting close to dinner cooking time.  Think I will get a cork ready for the upcoming season  :-D  Great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: the kid on January 21, 2007, 11:34:37 pm
buy a old army amo can from military surplus ..to put smoker in after putting out ..that way hot or not hurts nothing.

the kid after
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: NWIN Beekeeper on January 22, 2007, 01:45:22 am
A cork is a good way to snuff out a smoker. 
And I like MB's idea of laying it on its side - that works.
I'm still concerned that the contents are too hot to put into my truck.
This is why I use another one of MS's idea.
I lined the inside of my smoker with a 1 lbs coffee can (it makes it last longer or covers holes in old smokers!)
I also use an insert can (pineapple cans are best as they are a little bigger) with ventilation holes in it.
He had pix on his website, I think the newly revised site still has them.
When I'm done with the smoker I can grab the insert can with channel locks and dump the contents on the ground where I can snuff them out with sole of my work boots.
I might be very carefull doing this if I were in California or other area of high brush fire potential.
I think I remember reading that Root burned out hundreds of hives with his primative smoker.
Then again this is when they kept all their hives on the ground in piles of sawdust.
None-the-less I'm still very careful since reading that.

-Jeff
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Michael Bush on January 22, 2007, 07:25:09 am
>I also use an insert can
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/SmokerInsert3.jpg
http://www.bushfarms.com/images/SmokerInsert2.JPG

Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: qa33010 on January 23, 2007, 01:54:55 am
Laid down in an ammo can.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: pdmattox on January 23, 2007, 02:05:00 am
I stuff a piece of a pine branch (with green needles) in mine to plug the hole.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: mick on January 23, 2007, 04:33:33 am
I never have a problem, I just let it go out by itself. You could always pee on it!
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Brian D. Bray on January 24, 2007, 08:40:23 pm
I've observed that most beginner beekeepers have a very good way of putting out a smoker--It's called trying to keep it lit.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on January 24, 2007, 10:44:26 pm
Quite often I actually use the leafy garden vegetable to stuff in the hole, practically anything would really work I am sure.  Ya, keeping it lit is a feat, getting it better every year for sure.  Great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Apis629 on January 25, 2007, 11:16:04 pm
To put out my smoker, I usually have a decent sized clay pot on hand.  I just dump the fuel from the smoker into there and, just let it smoke its self out.  If I'm at home, I'll do that then place it under a running spigot.  However, at the association apiary, the usuall suggestion is to (a) cork it, or (b) dig a small hole in the ground, dump the smoker into it, put it out with whatever non-potable fluids are available (don't need to elaborate on that one), then cover it with sand.   I'm a fan of just dumping it into a pot.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Finsky on January 26, 2007, 12:12:44 am
.

Alyternatives:

1) I pour the rest onto ground and water on

2) I have foam plastic pieces here and there because I stuck upper entrances with that. I put in smoker's lower air hole plastic and in upper hole. 

Inside car it gives bad odour into air.

3) Sometimes I prefer to burn it to end that tar inside will be smaller amount : "burn to clean"
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Apis629 on January 26, 2007, 12:29:19 am
If you're away from the house, potable water would be better used for hydration, than extinguising your smoker.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Finsky on January 26, 2007, 02:07:31 am
If you're away from the house, potable water would be better used for hydration, than extinguising your smoker.

Yes, somethimes I must piss on cinder that forest will not catch fire.

I use this polyporus in my smoker to keep small smoke. It needs thump size piece and it burns one hour.
It is valubale because it is hard to find enough.  I may take fire to it from car's tobaco plug.


This stuff makes fire when you roll wood stick in the hole of dry polyporus

This makes tar at all and burn up to white ash.

http://www.pfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/diseases/ctd/Group/Canker/canker6_e.html


(http://www.metla.fi/metinfo/metsienterveys/kuvat/a6rj85.jpg)






Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: michelleb on January 26, 2007, 07:23:19 pm
I do keep water at my yard (remote--no running water, gotta haul it in jugs or "trap" it in buckets) and being Safety Freak that I am, I usually do what Kathy does--dump it and douse it on the packed clay driveway, and then use it next time 'round. I used to use a small metal trash can to carry it around, but that's too unwieldy. I do have several ammo cans--love that idea.

Never occurred to me to use a cork. Doh.  :roll:

One mistake I made: buying burlap at a fabric store. Clearly wasn't all cotton--it had a melty characteristic to it. Ew! But I'm not so trusting of used potato sacks, because of possible chemicals. Anybody else have any thoughts on this?
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Kathyp on January 26, 2007, 07:51:25 pm
Quote
buy a old army amo can from military surplus
   great idea....and as it happens, i own several. 

the burlap works well.  sometimes you can still find it at feed stores, but most feed is not in burlap anymore.  my bee store sells it.

i use it to start the smoker and then use wood pellets or pine cones to keep it going.

i think i'll try the cork also.  my husband said he'd help out by drinking the wine.....
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Michael Bush on January 26, 2007, 08:23:35 pm
I've bought lots of burlap at the fabric store.  Just make sure it's real burlap.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on January 27, 2007, 12:26:18 am
Pine cones.  Got lots of those, I think that they would smell nice to me when they burned, that would be good.  I am on a mission to collect and dry the cones.  Good information.  Great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: buzzbeejr on January 27, 2007, 12:34:23 am
isnt burlap kind of hard to lite michael
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Finsky on January 27, 2007, 02:33:47 am
Pine cones. 

That is worst what I may imagine. Perhaps needles of junioper are worse.

The idea is not to make much smoke but just keep bees calm. Smoke spoils your honey and bees either like it.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on January 27, 2007, 10:29:46 am
Pine cones. 
That is worst what I may imagine. Perhaps needles of junioper are worse.
The idea is not to make much smoke but just keep bees calm. Smoke spoils your honey and bees either like it.

In B.C., Inonotus obliquus has been reported on paper birch and rarely on cottonwood. Elsewhere in North America it has also been found on alder, hickory, beech, and Ostrya (American leverwood or hophornbeam). This fungus is widely distributed throughout the range of its hosts in B.C.

On my property I do not have birch that I know of.  We have alder, beech and cottonwood, and other softwoods, but the hardwoods are limited.  The disease of these hardwoods appears to be called a "conk".  Interesting.  I am going to look out in the forested part of our land that aremains and see if I can find some somewhere.  If I can, I will use this for smoke, like you do Finsky.  It appears that this woud be a superior smoker fuel, because of the long burning time and small amount of smoke.  We'll see.

I thought that pine cones would work well, I see the answer is no.  That is OK.  I would really like to work my hives without the use of smoke.  I do that quite often when I am doing something quickly in there.

For example.  On Wednesday I went to check the hives.  The day was very warm and sunny and the bees were flying very freely.  I wanted to look within the check the food reserves.  I did not want to use smoke that day, I thought that they did not need that hassel right then to fill up on honey.  The bees were calm and did not get annoyed even one tiny little bit with me going into their home.  No stings.

I did get stung when I went to push up my sleeve because I put my finger on a girl that was on my wrist that I did not see, that was my fault, not hers.  So, I figure that if I can work with these girls when it is the first day that they have been able to get out to cleanse, then I should really try with all my might to not use smoke.  I hear some forum members don't even use smoke at all, I remember their posts.

I have two hives that made it SO FAR through the winter.  They both have about 5 frames of bees.  I saw inside at least 1 full frame of capped  honey in position 1 and 10 in each hive, with frames 2, 3, 8, 9 some honey.  I took out the 2 and 9 frame and replaced with full honey frames left over from the dead colonies.

There is no disease in the dead hives, I looked very closely, so I did not have any worry about giving the honey to these two colonies.  I all saw was just poor dead bees looking like they were trying to get their last sip of food before they got too cold.  Oh woah is me, that is not a nice or happy sight to see.  This coming winter will be much different.  I'm going into winter with strong, strong healthy hives.  That is my mission.

I looked back on my records and these hives that died were the ones with the higher varroa mite counts that I performed the sticky board tests on last fall just before I applied the formic acid pads.  I was advised by the Mitegone fellow that my colonies' collapse was probably imminent because of the high counts.  He was 100% correct.

In reviewing my records of last year, I read that on February 4 I observed the colonies were bringing in lots of pollen.  This must be when the hardwoods are producing pollen (and maybe some softwood too?).  On March 4 each colony was given a pollen patty and on March 12 I had to give another one.   On the March 4, this was when I observed larvae in the colonies, so by March 4 they are very busy rearing brood.  I also remember having to be careful on that day (and afterwards of course) when I walked outside near the apiary because the bees were so busy drinking water from the puddles and muck out there.  That was before I finished the ditch that I made for their water needs.  Not to say that they still didn't enjoy the puddles.

I see the phacelia tanacetifolia that has self-seeded up near the apiary is growing like crazy.  The seedlings are about 1 inch high.  I must go out and thin these plants P.D.Q. because they grow better if they are not crowded.  This plant begins to set bud about 6 weeks after germination.  It likes to have the cool weather conditions.  So it will be interesting.  I should see buds by  no later than about March 15, give or take and then open flowers producing nectar within a two week period following that. So, I should, if all goes well, have some nectar being produced for bees by April 1, or sooner.  That is good, that would be an early nectar flow that will be very strong.  Good for bombus and other beneficials as well.  They love it plant's abundant nectar.

I will continue to sow the see for phacelia every two weeks throughout summer so there is a continuous nectar flow from this plant.  It is pointless to sow seed after 15 August because the daylight sunshine hours are not long and strong enough for the plant to produce flowers.  I tried it last year and it came into bud too late to be of any use, then the frost killed the plant down before it flowered.  It was an experiment and I learned something.

It is time to start to think about raising seedlings for the garden soon, be it vegetables or flowers.  Hurray!!!!  Spring is a time of new birth of many things.

I heard the Varied Thrush yesterday, calling its single note, in different pitches.  That in our area is one of the very first signs of the springtime coming on quickly.  The many trees' buds are swelling and it won't be long before the daylight hours are longer than 8. 

In winter here at the winter solstace time, the sun sets at approximately 4:00 P.M. and rises about 8:00 A.M.  That is approximately 8 hours of good daylight.  Now the sun is rising and setting about an hour longer on each end.  It is very noticeable the longer daylight hours and I rejoice at the difference in the light.

I can carry on...Great day.  Cindi


Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: lively Bee's on January 27, 2007, 03:52:16 pm
"One mistake I made: buying burlap at a fabric store. Clearly wasn't all cotton--it had a melty characteristic to it. Ew! But I'm not so trusting of used potato sacks, because of possible chemicals. Anybody else have any thoughts on this?


 
isnt burlap kind of hard to lite michael


All I use is burlap some times I use bailing twine from when I busted my hay bails.  I can Pick up burlap sacks local for 50 cents each some have have beans, coffie in them I cull any painted then I roll it up place it on a log and hit it with a axe cutting it in 4 - 6" logs they fit right in a smoker and light with no problems.

Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Michael Bush on January 27, 2007, 04:08:35 pm
>isnt burlap kind of hard to lite michael

IMO, not at all.  The loose ends where you cut it light very well.  Getting anything in a smoker well lit is a big part of the work.

Working a smoker is an art and a science.  You need to understand the principles of fire (air, fuel, heat) and you need to apply them.  You also have to get a feel for when the smoker should be pumped and when it's actually well lit or about to go out.

If I'm going to be working hives all day, I like to build a small fire of sticks and get them well lit and burned down a bit to make some coals and then add the burlap.  Some self lighting charcoal would probably help too.

Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Finsky on January 27, 2007, 04:23:07 pm

Smoke is a problem in nursing if you have not good stuff stored.

I use only decayed leave tree trunk or that fungud. Some stuff burn too fast. Some stop burning.

When I find a good trunk or tree stump I use it so much as I it is avaiable. It is only way to try what individual case is good.

Dry hey gives good smoke but awfully bad odor.  Sometimes bees get angry if  beewax mixed in smoke stuff.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Kathyp on January 27, 2007, 05:28:23 pm
the pine cones are great if they are dry and not sticky with sap.  maybe it has something to do with the kind of tree?  anyway, i collect them when they fall and store them in paper bags for a year.  after that, the light and smoke well with just a paper towel, or some burlap to get them going.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: wtiger on January 27, 2007, 06:32:49 pm
What do you guys think of kiln dried oak sawdust?  Not the fine gritty stuff , but the fuzz you collect in the first part of a 2 stage cyclonic collection system.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: tyb on January 27, 2007, 10:14:28 pm
Corks and rubber corks are good, but what I nearly always do is pluck a bunch of moist green grass just the right amount so that when I twist it, double it over and twist again it fits nicely into the spout of the smoker. This way I get to save and re-use any 'precious' fuel such as well-rotted burlap. I mostly stuff grass into the ventilation tube at the bottom as well. Then put the smoker into a safe container like a metal pail, just in case it re-ignites (which it never has, using this method). Bunches of moist green grass are great, too, for putting in the smoker, on top of any fuel which is burning too hot. Smoke should be COOL, WHITE & DENSE. Puff it on the back of your hand to check  (like putting your elbow in to check the temperature of the baby's bathwater!).
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Michael Bush on January 28, 2007, 05:56:00 pm
The other nice thing about the grass plug is next time it's often dry enough to use for fuel.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Finsky on January 28, 2007, 06:35:20 pm
the pine cones are great if they are dry .

Sounds awfull!
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: BEE C on January 31, 2007, 07:16:02 am
Cindi,
Interesting to hear your records from last year, seeing how we share a zone.  A local beek told me at one of ron's seminars that he uses sumac flowers to burn in his smoker. Gonna try that! With ron we didn't have the luxury so we always used burlap.  I always plug my smoker with moss, and it seems ok.  I like the idea of a can inside the smoker now that should extend its life!  Finskys fugus is also a traditional salish cancer cure.  We have a lot of polypores in our backyard.  my fiance picked some because she like the look, and when we looked them up they were a firestarter used apparently for thousands of years in europe.  We tried them out in the fireplace starting a fire and they were awesome.  Though I have to agree with brian the hard part is keeping the darn things going!
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid223/p9940a962b5e3dac52a0d06f3dfb844da/eada74bc.jpg)
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on January 31, 2007, 09:09:08 am
Steve, when we took our courses at Ron's we used shredded white paper.  Interesting that he has gone to burlap, maybe it is better surely.

The polypores, that one that you put a picture on looks like the ones that I pick off the stumps to draw pictures on, but maybe are simply a different species.  Does the one that you picked have a white/beige kind of flat bottom on it (picture an area that you could draw a picture)?

I have the staghorn sumac growing on my property, I would imagine that that would be the sumac that you are speaking of.  Never thought of that for fuel, I have many of the red cones that produced the flowers last year still on the trees.  Maybe I'll give that a whirl.  Evidently, the staghorn sumac is good for the bees to, think they gather pollen from it, so that is a bonus.

What trees did your fiance find the polypores on?  Great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Michael Bush on January 31, 2007, 11:18:53 pm
Sumac works pretty well.  It stays lit a long time.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: BEE C on February 01, 2007, 06:27:04 am
Good to hear someone else uses sumac MB, they are the red flowered ones here.  Cindi, the polypore in the pic is called tinder polypore, its hoof sized at maturity.  The larger shelf polypores you mention are resinous polypore, and conifer base polypore, they grow to dinner plate size and are often used to paint or draw on.  At least the ones we found here were.  My guide book says the tinder pp habitat is dead conifers, or live maple, birch, beech, hickery, polar, and cherry.  That narrows it down eh? Stef collected it during a day of mushroom picking and didn't note the habitat, but I have yet to see more of them compared to the others which are everywhere here.  Here is a picture of the underside.
(http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid223/p2b69c062875b673d9ce49fc1784698d8/eada74ae.jpg)
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Michael Bush on February 01, 2007, 07:49:18 am
The Lakota call them "tree ears".  They are good to eat, but a bit tough and dry.
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on February 01, 2007, 09:33:24 am
<Good to hear someone else uses sumac MB, they are the red flowered ones here.  Cindi, the polypore in the pic is called tinder polypore, its hoof sized at maturity.  The larger shelf polypores you mention are resinous polypore, and conifer base polypore, they grow to dinner plate size and are often used to paint or draw on.  At least the ones we found here were.  My guide book says the tinder pp habitat is dead conifers, or live maple, birch, beech, hickery, polar, and cherry.>

Steve, now that is great information.  I gather them all the time like I said for writing on.  I have not saved the ones that didn't turn out too good, too bad that I didn't.

I have given several of the  "shelf polypores" to my daughters when they were very young that I had drawn pictures on.  To this day the pictures are still entirely visible.  That would be say, 25 or more years ago.  The shelf polypores that I drew for them were very large, perhaps the size of dinnerplates.

It is nice to know the actual name of the fungus.  I always wondered what they were called, and now I do.

I am going to gather the Sumac cones soon, I will dry them and add them to my smoker collection, that will be burlap, polypores and Sumac cones.  This will be good smoke for the bees.  But as I said before, I am going to attempt working the hives without smoke this year and see what comes of it.  I will not be stupid and not have the smoker at hand, but I won't puff it if I don't have to.

There are alot of very edible mushrooms in our area.  I am not familiar enough with the mushroom kingdom to feel comfortable in gathering, but I know in the fall there are shrooms aplenty.

We used to have horses here years ago and we always had in plenty those darn psyllisybum (spelling) Stuntz' mushrooms.  Evidently they are not as halucinogenic as the liberty caps, but I have read they still contain the chemical they both possess.  From my youth memories I can identify the magic mushrooms.  I often wondered if the horses got high from grazing around these little fungi.  Probably not, never saw any crazy acting horses out there.  Oh well.

This is a picture of a polyspore, now whether it is a small shelf polypore or a timber polypore, that is left to the unknown.  It is about the size of a fist, it was one that I had kept because my neice drew a pretty picture on it and I liked it.  The pic is a little blurry, it is looking at it from the side.

Great day.  Cindi
(http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9666/funguslf6.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: BEE C on February 01, 2007, 04:48:28 pm
Yes we do live in a magic kingdom.  There are more mushrooms growing throughout the wet seasons than I have ever seen.  I have hiked a lot over the years and love to go wandering off trails, but I have never even seen some of these mushrooms that are right on the back lawn.  we were after edibles the day we were picking, because we have a friend who used to pick these boletes that grow aplenty out back here.  She used to collect mushrooms with her grandmother back in Poland and insisted we could eat them.  We also found Li chin mushrooms (Mushroom of immortality) a mushroom reserved for the emperor in ancient times and supposedly quite good for you :)  , hemlock pufballs, and chicken mushrooms (shelf polypores that actually taste like chicken).  The boletes were very disgusting looking, and our friend maria and I were the only ones who would eat them.  They turn blue when bruised but are not psilocybian.  I was worried about that because this is the first non hallucinogenic mushroom that I have ever seen that is. (and I had to work that day)  We also have some pretty deadly galerinas here which grow right along side the wavy blue halo or cyanescens psilos.  I am amazed that more kids don't get sick or die because of that.  I always see THE DUDE, hat turned sideways, dragging his oversized pants through the grass looking for shroomies at parks here.  I go for walks and during the wet season I have to laugh because there is usually some kid picking everything he sees and throwing it in a plastic bag.  None the less, we have found some really good boletes that I can safely add to my edibles list.  I believe I beat cancer when I was younger because of medicinal mushrooms that we all don't pay any attention to.  At the time i had to drive to Chinatown and buy them from herbalist shops, now a days I can sell them, but I don't, its like having a medicine cabinet out back.  My book lists the range for tinder mushrooms as all the way down to texas so thats interesting that they are so wide spread, and well received  within such a massive range MB.  Usually the guide book range is limited by climate change or cross breeding with local varieties.  Mine are hard as rocks now because they are dried out but I would like to try some one day. 
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on February 01, 2007, 11:12:32 pm
Steve, sounds like you are into the mushroom catch.  That is good, our area supports so many different types of mushrooms.  If there ever was a club that I would like to join it would be the "mushroom" one, is it called mycology or something like that?

I have two very good books on mushrooms of the PNW and it is truly amazing how many species, but so many look alikes that I got rather turned off.  Anyways, in the wrong forum.  Have a great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: reinbeau on February 03, 2007, 04:36:15 pm

I have two very good books on mushrooms of the PNW and it is truly amazing how many species, but so many look alikes that I got rather turned off.  Anyways, in the wrong forum.  Have a great day.  Cindi
Cindi, here's a link to the North American Mycological Association (http://www.namyco.org/clubs/index.html), you can probably find something close to you listed.  There is a Boston club that comes down to my area and gives talks. 

I don't like to eat mushrooms, I just like to find them and take pictures.  The many forms are fascinating!
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: Cindi on February 04, 2007, 10:15:15 am
Ann, thanks, it looks like there is only on on Vancouver Island, too far away for me.  I am sure that my area would have a club, particularly as we have mushrooms galore.  If I ever find that extra time, that would be an interest like I said, maybe after summer.  Great day.  Cindi
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: imabkpr on February 04, 2007, 10:47:46 am
Smokers are easy to start, but harder to get the right smoke. I'm pretty sure i got the right kind of smoke going and feel im set for the summer.

Now I couldn't figure out how to put the smoker OUT!

any suggestions?

  nepenthes; Yes smokers are easy to get started, if you don't pack it so full of fuel that it can't breathe. My choice of fuel is pine straw. If i were to use burlap i would wash it to remove the oils and chemicals that it may contain to retard rodents and fire. The same for baler twine. Its very simple to put the smoker out, just stick a corn cob in the smoke spout. Place the smoker in a metal container such as a bucket or smoker box.  Charlie
Title: Re: Putting out a Smoker
Post by: GNHONEY on February 04, 2007, 10:57:35 pm
I agree with cindi I always use green vegetation I like to open smoker and put a plug of it on inside of smoker push in firmly till it just startes to come out of hole on other side as for smoker fuel pine needles work great get fire going real good and then pack in as much as possible as you are packing keep pumping bellow till you get a nice cool white smoke smells good to will last for a hour or so       gnhoney