In this on‑location tutorial filmed in Malta, the presenter demonstrates a reliable method for lighting a bee smoker that stays lit for many hours. The process begins by scoring cardboard into thin strips cut across the grain to promote airflow, then placing the strips at the smoker’s base and puffing them with a strong breath. Standard wood pellets are added as fuel, with lavender‑scented pellets suggested as a premium option. The key “secret” ingredient is wild fennel, placed on top of the wood chips; it humidifies the smoke, lowers its temperature, and releases calming essential oils that keep bees quiet. The presenter notes that this combination can produce smoke that lasts up to 12 hours, with visible output even four hours after lighting. Practical tips include avoiding cheap UK cardboard rolls, using the fennel’s properties for bee‑friendly smoke, and how to replicate the method elsewhere.
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Today I'm gonna show you how to light a smoker using a very special ingredient. So I'm here in Malta and it is absolutely stunning. As soon as I saw Amano's smoker, I thought, wow, that is a really nicely lit smoker with the best perfume smoke. I'll let Amano now show you how to light a smoker Malta style. So first off, he takes some cardboard and he scores the cardboard like that to get a nice little strip, 3 strips. So that's a really good tip there. When you're cutting the cardboard, you have to cut it across the cross-section to allow the air to kind of permeate up. You would have seen the cardboard rolls that we get in the UK. Don't buy those; they are super cheap to make. So then gets it going. With his asbestos fingers, gives it a good blow. So he places that at the bottom of the smoker, really puffs it. Got a mixture of wood chips in there. What are the wood chips made from?
The normal pellet for the for the heater.
For the heater, okay.
But the best is with lavender, but yeah.
So what Mano says there, he uses wood pellets, just standard wood pellets, but sometimes you can get wood pellets made purely from lavender. lavender, and that is his favorite one, but any wood pellets will do. And he says this is the important bit, you need to get it super, super hot, so puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, really hot. But here comes the special ingredient. So let's just take a quick look around because this is beautiful Malta. How much would you love to have an apiary here? So the secret ingredient that he uses here is wild fennel. Now we don't get wild fennel in the UK, but you can grow fennel in the UK and it is basically identical to the fennel that you can grow. And then all he does is stuffs that in the top, keeps those wood chips nice and puffed, and then just keeps on going. So why do you use the wild fennel?
To make the smoke very humid.
Humid smoke.
Reduce the temperature of the smoke and have a good smell. Good smell.
Okay.
Is very good for the bees, stay very quiet. Yeah.
3 reasons he likes that fennel is the first one is it keeps the smoke very, very humid, which the bees like. It cools the temperature down of the smoke. And then the essential oils within that fennel are apparently very calming to the bees as well. He swears by it. He learned it from a very, very well-respected beekeeper. And you can already see, just look how well that's lit and how much smoke that is generating. So just giving that a puff there, you can see, look, every single puff you're getting smoke coming out. And I saw this one yesterday. It lasted for about 12 hours. Really, really nice smoke. So a little update on the smoker there. About 4 hours after we lit it, still going strong. Look at that, from the first puff as well. So there we go, that's how you light your smoker Malta style. Start off with cardboard, lots of wood pellets, wild fennel in the top. It will last pretty much all day, and it really is the nicest smell going.
