Here I’m starting the bee smoker the age-old traditional way… using a blow torch… I’ve tried loads of ways to start it and using the blow torch is still by far the best way to start the bee smoker. The rationale is you need a number of elements in the smoker to get consistent smoke, fast and slow burners – the issue is the slow burners sometimes don’t catch in time.

Using the blow torch basically means you light everything. The mistake I made (and usually make) is not to keep on wafting the bellows for a bit.