John,

It depends on what genre film they're being used. At the time, 13 - 16 years ago, OW!, I was a professional stuntman, so the bees employed were from my local, and mostly used 2 stroke offroad beecycles (sorry!)

I can't recall what they used, but I remember looking inside one. It seems they used two products: one was a circular disc which seemed to generate most of the smoke and the other was a multi coloured granular product.

If you're interested, I can make some calls and find out.

Guy,

You gotta hate those 2 stroke beecycles! My queen bee ex-girlfriend used to drone on and on about how the bees that rode them were...well..the bee's knees. :)

If you wouldn't mind asking around, I'd really appreciate it. I've always been a "back to the basics" guy. Can't imagine spending hundreds of dollars for an electric-powered smoke blower that burns products that have to be specially ordered and are pretty toxic, when all you have to have is a good old-fashioned bee smoker and whatever gunk they put inside (hopefully not as toxic as the chemical stuff they use now).

Thanks!

smoke
 

The material used in the "bee smokers" is ole banum. It is a pine tar resin. You place charcoal brickets that are already glowing with white ash in the container. Then you put the nuggets (about the size of peas) on top of the charcoal. By pumping the bellows it produces smoke. You can also mix equal parts of granulated sugar and potassium nitrate (salt peter from the drug store). put the mixture on a piece of metal plate and ignight with a butane torch. Burns fast..lots of smoke. Don't contain it. you could dampen it with a mist of water to make it burn slower.

You could also make an "oil cracker". You get a 25 gallon steel drum and put 6" of mineral oil in the bottom. Take copper tubing and drill the smallest holes you can in the tube. make a ring out of the tubing and submerge it in the oil with the holes under the surface and the end of the tubing sticking out of the top of the can. Attach the end to an air compressor set at 120 psi. The air going thru the small holes at high pressure "cracks the oil molecules and turns them into mist or smoke.

Since the smoke(or any smoke machine smoke) is oil based, it will make the floor slippy after awhile.

Hope this helps

David Mesloh
Special Effects Coordinator
GIMIX, Inc.
A Full Service Special Effects and Prop Company

Straight from the horse's mouth! Thanks, David. The mystery is solved.

Now let's see...how do I say ole banum in Japanese...hmmmm