I use soft rotten wood as a base. Birch is best…low tar.
To this I add…lavender flowers/stems, rosemary leaves, bay leaves and dry orange peel.
Wonderfull aromatic low tar smoke.
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I never thought to add Rosemary or lavender to the smoker - sounds nice
@dangerous I don’t if that is such a great idea? I would be standing there for hours enjoying the smell from the smoker and not paying attention to the bees! 
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I use chunks of cardboard egg carton to get my smoker going, works well. For fuel I use organic sugar cane mulch. A bale costs a couple of dollars and it burns well. I often mix in dry sticks and bits of wood.
The key is to make sure you have a good bed of coals before packing the fuel down.
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Yes I’ve been using the paper shredding’s for the Shredder squashed inside a 6 egg carton - does for bot my hives and some - cost effective and eco friendly - recycled
I found the perfect Ausie smoker fuel the other day. Bunya shells. The shells from the seeds, not the cone. However I’m sure the cone parts are also good after drying them
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I’m adding something new that I discovered only the other day. This idea is brilliant & it’s perfect if there’s only damp fuel around. People on Youtube are making fire starters using cotton balls with Vaseline rubbed into them, remembering that Vaseline is petroleum jelly. I simply have a jar of white petroleum jelly (cheaper than Vaseline) in the cab of my truck, rub some on bits of bark, cardboard or paper & my smoker really starts well & burns for quite some time. No problems when adding more fuel.
@DextersShed No I don’t Dexter, I only tried it out the other day & it works really well. I’m NOT using it to make smoke, simply to get the fire in my smoker going. Other stuff makes the smoke. I’ll add my disclaimer: This is what works for me. What other people do, is up to them.
Watch for air leaks! As it happened to me, the bellows was broken, that was why I couldn’t keep it lit. A little duct tape and the it lasted for about two hours with very little puffing…! They break rather easily from the corner.
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Hi Mario, I couldn’t agree more. Us rednecks love duct tape, we reckon “if you can’t fix it with duct tape, your not using enough duct tape”
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Exactly, my only question is why didn’t they made the bellows with duct tape in the beginning?
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Had a wreck the other day in my truck with a herd of deer and until the parts arrived I had to use strips of duct tape to hold one of my headlights in as all the retaining screws plastic attachments shattered. Stupid deer, being on roads at sundown.
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Well done Tony, too bad about the damage though. Most people use hive clamps to bold their beehive lid down while transporting them, I just use duct tape, well to be honest, masking tape.
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Used this cardboard trick today and it worked great!
My issue is putting the smoker out. I want to put it out when I am done and save my fuel, but I have not figured a good way to do that. Wondering what others do?
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Easy. Stick a plug in the chimney. No oxygen=No fire.
Plug the hole with a clump of grass
Plug it with grass and lay it on its side