getting involved with bees my journey into beekeeping began in january this year farmer demonstrated...

Getting involved with beesMy journey into beekeeping began in January this year• Farmer demonstrated tripping of Lucerne flowers• Daughter considering bees for school Research Project• Project around monitoring of bee hive mass• All we needed was a hive and a scale• Completed WEA Beginner Beekeeping course

Getting involved with bees

• February: nucleus and weighing of hive started• July: started developing beehive monitoring system

for RAS, Research Project and commercialization• September: BMS won 1st prize at RAS (Student)

Beehive MonitoringTraditional beehive monitoring involves an in situ inspection, where the hive is systematically dismantled and inspected.

Beehive MonitoringConcept of making inferences about a colony health from the beehive’s mass has been promoted as an alternative to physical inspections.

NASA claims that graphing the weight of a beehive against time provides a clear, accurate and fuss-free representation of the colony dynamics.

See HoneyBeeNet at http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Hive and Scale

Hive scale in all weather container (plastic bag) placed under hive

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Mass of Beehive IOA H001 2014Hi

ve m

ass (

kg)

Second super added

First super added

Frame of honey re-moved, sampled then replaced

10 frames of honey har-vested and stickies re-placed

Daily Hive Mass Variation

2:24:00 4:48:00 7:12:00 9:36:00 12:00:00 14:24:00 16:48:00 19:12:00 21:36:00 0:00:0050.6

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Time (hrs:min:sec)

Mas

s (k

gs)

Decrease in mass as honey forms as water evaporates

Initial decrease in mass as foraging bees leave hive

Increase in mass until dusk as foraging bees return with pollen and nectar

Hive Monitoring SystemsThe real productivity bonus from hive monitoring is when the data is retrieved automatically from remote sites.

To answer “What is happening in the box 1 km or 500 km away?” without the need for in-situ inspection saves time, travel costs and unnecessary disturbance of bees.

Changes in mass could be used to indicate beginning and ending of honey flows, the status of bee health and the need to inspect unusual occurrences e.g. a cow has knocked over a hive.

Bee Monitoring SystemsBee monitoring systems on the market based on hive mass measurements, include:

Arnia from UK (http://www.arnia.co.uk/

BeeWise system from France (http://www.beewise.eu/)

BeeWatch hive scales from Denmark (http://www.swienty.com/shop/default.asp?catid=1229)

Hivemind from New Zealand (http://hivemind.co.nz/)

Solutionbee from USA (http://www.solutionbee.com/index.html)

One Accord BMS from Australia (http://inoneaccord.weebly.com)

Android phone

Digital Scale Controller Unit

Interface Unit

Remote Computer

One Accord Bee Monitoring System

iCloud