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  • Electronic monitoring

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #5090  by Neil
 27 Oct 2019, 15:07
Does anyone have any experience of electronic beehive monitoring? I have looked at the websites of two suppliers, Arnia in UK & Bee Hive Monitoring in Slovakia. Arnia do not respond to my enquiries. Both appear to use a similar system of scales and a device in the hive that send signals (weight, acoustics, humidity etc) via a gateway to a mobile phone. Seems promising, but I cannot find any independent reviews.
 #5091  by Chrisbarlow
 27 Oct 2019, 17:39
Sorry, never used either. Be interested to hear how it goes if you get one
 #5093  by Cable_Fairy
 27 Oct 2019, 20:26
Her in doors suggested I get the Arina one last Christmas but after a bit of investigation it seemed rather expensive to run for just two hives.
 #5094  by Patrick
 28 Oct 2019, 00:02
From a position of complete ignorance I am not sure of the point of these types of data loggers aside from for researchers.

For practical beekeeping purposes what am I going to infer from a change in hive humidity or indeed do about it? Knowing the weight change is useful - but I can already do that by lifting the back of the hive as I am passing.

They always remind me of the OBD2 readers for your car which are certainly useful but will also tell you lots of things which are not. Unless there is an annoying yellow light on or fault code UB40 showing at the time, is also knowing the throckle pin relief valve sensor is recording 5.1v of great use to most of us? :roll: :D
 #5095  by Alfred
 28 Oct 2019, 07:58
Toys
Just get on with keeping bees.
If you need to get nerdy go on Robot Wars :lol:
 #5096  by AdamD
 28 Oct 2019, 09:51
It would be interesting to learn how the weight of a hive changes from day to day - hopefully going up massively in the summer and then down slowly over winter. It would also be interesting to have a temperature sensor in the centre of the brood nest to know when the bees are brooding in winter - whether they stop completely in December, say, or whether they keep going a little bit. However it's an "interesting to know" thing rather than an absolute necessity.

A year ago I purchased a temperature sensor via eBay from China - including delivery for just £1 with a thermocouple probe; a metre of wire and a LCD display. It would not be too difficult to poke that in a hive and see what happens. Currently it's hanging on the door frame of my little extraction room.
 #5097  by Japey Edge
 28 Oct 2019, 11:34
Can't be too expensive to get a raspberry pi or arduino set up for this can it? Connect to the WiFi and get your info from the comfort of the living room :-)

That's for a garden apiary mind... Out-apiaries I don't know - 3G SIM?
 #5101  by Chrisbarlow
 28 Oct 2019, 19:14
Alfred wrote:
28 Oct 2019, 07:58
Toys
Just get on with keeping bees.
If you need to get nerdy go on Robot Wars :lol:
Not toys but interesting, trial and error, it might be quite useful. Maybe, maybe not

Everything we use today was once some one else's trial and error until they realised what they had was of use to everyone else. Then it turned into basic equipment :D
 #5102  by Patrick
 28 Oct 2019, 23:41
It’s a good point Chris. I was maybe being a teensy bit of a grumpster!

The thing that bothers me is when people flogging stuff give beginners the idea that this stuff is essential to keep bees and they spend hundreds or more on kit which actually doesn’t help them in the least. I will desist on naming some of the familiar commercial hive innovations recently marketed I have had the misfortune to encounter, but they are simply over engineered and don’t work to keep bees. Sadly, their purchasers are very unlikely to remain beekeepers.

But then again, you may study your bees with IT if that’s your bag and find out something surprising.
 #5105  by NigelP
 29 Oct 2019, 08:50
Its always surprised me that no-one seems to manufacture floors with build in scales that transmit via Bluetooth/wifi. I know you can get hive scales but these are separate items that you need to lift your hives onto.
It would save hours of regular hefting. Might even find out why some hive burn through their stores and some are extremely frugal.