Hive Monitoring

[brothermoo]

Today Jon and I installed 4 hive monitors and a hive scale on some hives. They transmit data about temp of broodnest, humidity of broodnest, acoustics inside and flight frequencies are monitored for activity at entrance.
uploadfromtaptalk1399929648566.jpg
Below is the hive scale in situ
uploadfromtaptalk1399929696166.jpg
Here is the monitor unit in a brood box
uploadfromtaptalk1399929798321.jpg
And finally the happy beekeeper surveying his apiary after the work is done
uploadfromtaptalk1399929880564.jpg
___________________________________
brothermoo.wordpress.com

[Jon]

This is part of a project from a local association (Dromore) which got a grant of nearly £10,000 to buy the Arnia equipment for 8 different groups of beekeepers.
Each group has 4 hive monitors, a scale a weather station and a transmitter.
The data gets sent to a data centre in Newcastle once every 24 hours via an o2 sim card in the transmitter and can be checked online for patterns such as brood nest temperature fluctuations, brood nest humidity etc.

That's one of our Galtee queen colonies in the photo, the bottom brood box of a double brood.

Note the classy combination of a correx dummy board and a high tech monitor!

[chrisjhodges]

Characteristic stance of Mr G in finest attire!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gavin]

Looks like there's a lot of fun to be had with these things.

Characteristic stance of Mr G in finest attire!!

A fine figure of a beekeeper there. I like the Larry Grayson pose. And the little proto-kilt (or personal skep as Paul might have it) poking out from under the jacket, a nod to Scottish forebears perhaps.

[drumgerry]

Oooo shut that hive!

[Jon]

Yiz are all very funny!

[drumgerry]

Seriously Jon great project. And a good use for public funding for a change.

[Jimbo]

The SBA were involved a few years ago with a similar project. There was a presentation given by the person from ARNIA at one of the SBA meetings but I have heard nothing since. I know one of our members got a monitor so I will ask about his experience with it.

[Jon]

One of the oft repeated claims on biobees is that opening a colony is bad as it reduces the brood nest temperature and this favours the reproduction of the varroa mite.
One of the devotees got into an argument with me on the bbka facebook page recently and he claimed that opening the hive would lower the temperature of the brood nest for about 24 hours (LOL)

This is data from two of our colonies on Tuesday night. 6062 was opened around 7pm for half an hour and 6063 was opened around 7.45pm for about half an hour to allow our beginner class to manipulate frames.
The last column shows the brood nest temperature between 5 o clock and 9 o clock at 2 hour intervals. Range 33.2 to 33.4

6062 13/05/2014 17:00 1400000400 2036 38.32168568 1033 33.24542167
6062 13/05/2014 19:00 1400007600 1831 32.13224778 1035 33.40659384
6062 13/05/2014 21:00 1400014800 1951 35.75533338 1035 33.40659384

This one was also opened for 30-40 minutes around 7 o clock
less than 1c range.

6063 13/05/2014 17:00 1400000400 1927 35.03071626 1043 34.05128248
6063 13/05/2014 19:00 1400007600 1997 37.14418286 1032 33.16483559
6063 13/05/2014 21:00 1400014800 2090 39.9520742 1044 34.13186856

[prakel]

One of the devotees got into an argument with me on the bbka facebook page recently and he claimed that opening the hive would lower the temperature of the brood nest for about 24 hours (LOL)

There's a lot of rubbish doing the rounds with regard hive temperature, normally by people who don't have a clue if you ask me. Over the last few years I've actually made a point of opening a few hives in the depths of each winter -a calculated risk on my part to see what the score actually is with regard to brood rearing/cessation. This after hearing of all the doom that will befall my bees.... but, guess what, I've never seen any noticeable issues either at the time or during the following Spring. Not for everyone, I know, but I've become very tired of being told what's right and wrong regarding bees -especially by people who don't actually have practical experience of what they preach. I reckon that the worst that'll befall me is an entire chapter in the 'New History of Bad Beekeepers'.