In my country, one team is developing an application to find a queen bee. This would work by just scanning beehive frame with a camera and it marking queen bee in a few seconds if queen bee is on that beehive frame.

 

This would work by just scanning beehive frame with a camera and it marking queen bee in a few seconds if queen bee is on that beehive frame.

I can't help noticing that sentence says that system marks the queen bee after the camera identifies the queen bee. If that isn't a translation/syntax error I'd certainly like to know more about the system!

 

I've been beekeeping since last spring. In my mind, beekeeping is a great way to take part in nature. The more technology you add the less you do that, thus making it less fun.

I don't know what you boys in Bosnia are smokin, but putting time and energy into a program as the one that you described with finding the queen seems silly to me. Just imagine: they're are about 6 frames per box your queen could be on, 12 on a double deep colony. 2 sides of a frame that you will need a photo of, that's 24 photos I may have to take with a phone with a sticky propolis covered hand. Inbetween each 2 photos i have to set the phone down, put the frame back in, got another one, etc.. Now stop imagining cause that's going to be reality.

Personally, i'd rather just look for the queen with my god given eyes and get a calendar to write my reports in.

 

I like the use of some programs for record keeping. With multiple hives it does seem to streamline the process a little once you get past the learning curve. I don’t so much use it for reminders for treatment or other things like that. It is useful when looking at a colony to be able to quickly review notes from the last inspection while in the field.

 

Modern technologies for record keeping, yes, but hive tool and smoker for doing the actual beekeeping.
Some of the interior camera and sound technologies might be beneficial. And Rfid tech for tracking hives that have been stolen are good. I don't think the queen finding app that you talk of sounds so beneficial to me, I'd have to agree with emmett on that one. But keep the old thinking cap on, maybe a new tech idea will come to you that would change the way some things are done in beekeeping, or that will help in learning more about what makes a beehive a beehive.

 

@Emmett, @RayMarler. I agree with you, I also want to enjoy nature with bees, and I don't carry my phone to the apiary. Honestly, I write down all the observations in the apiary by hand in my notebook. Of course, we have to agree that modern technology sometimes makes things easier for us.

I wanted to hear your opinion

 

I saw a post a while ago that someone shared about a device that constantly weighed a beehive. That was pretty interesting.

I’m on a trip away from my bees right now, if I had that on just one hive I guess I could monitor the honey flow.

Bob Binny had a video on artificial queen insemination. That was neat too.

 

Also, I use a scale in the apiary. Only there is no possibility to send data on phone. I have to walk to the apiary and look scale display. It seems interesting to monitor the situation.

 

Here’s one that claims to send it to your phone and long as your phone has signal and the hive has Wi-Fi or a set up Wi-Fi “hotspot” they call it. Store - Beehive Scales and Monitors

 

Here’s one that claims to send it to your phone and long as your phone has signal and the hive has Wi-Fi or a set up Wi-Fi “hotspot” they call it. Store - Beehive Scales and Monitors

These scales look interesting

 

What would be amazing is if a scale gave you an alert on your phone when the hive weight drops a great amount in short amount of time like a swarm so you would know right away.

 

I am of the same opinion As Emmett.
However I have been doing bees this way since before the 286 processor.

may have some old dog new tricks issues.
young uns may be more interested.

I keep to escape technology.

GG

 

I keep to escape technology.
GG

Me too. Back in the mid- to late-80's I used to design industrial control systems based on the Intel 8085 processor(*) which seemed to me at the time to make good sense - by relieving humans of boring repetitive tasks which could then be performed without encountering errors. But these days it seems that microprocessors are solutions in search of problems to be solved, and so problems are so often invented for them. Indeed, I'd say there's a very real risk of technological addiction becoming a serious disease.
LJ

(*) You mentioned the 286 - I used to 'book time' on a 286 in order to run OrCAD - seems crazy now ... !

 

I have set up 48 hive capability to monitor temperature in the top hive super (I run 3 8fr medium for the hive body for last 40 years). It lies on top of the inner cover in the summer and other months I have and empty super med on top of the 3, with the probe hanging down above the frames. 48 hives are monitored 24/7 ever minute into a spreadsheet that can be trended. It shows a lot of info compared to an outside probe. 1 if the trend in a hive is following the outside probe it is probably dead. 2 if active, the bees down in the hive supers, a probe runs about 20 to 30 degF above outside and if high on to of frames close to the probe 50 to 60 degF above the outside. 3 There appears to be jagged lines in the trends at times as if the bees are working their wing muscles to heat the ball of bees. I have been doing this for the past ~5years and watch the trends in the house on my computers. Cost about $4 per hive per probe and Raspberry Pi to store and feed the info by ethernet to my house computer.

 

I have set up weight monitoring (load cell on back end of hive weighting ~1/2 the hive times2). They have held up the zero and spanned weight better than I though they would. My 8fr 3med hive body plus and empty med on top, inner cover, roof, bottom and 24 drawn brood combs with some pollen; weights ~ 35 to 40lbs (half the hive). I "fatten" my hives to 50 to 55lbs for winter ( feed them sugar patties as needed all winter long if they take it on top of the frames. It cost ~$50 per hive. One load cell similar to in bathroom scales ~$7, one ESP32 micro computer ~$6, one scale readout that converts the load cell signal (allows zeroing, spanning, and a local readout) ~$8, a water tight box ~$12, power supply~$6, and for bits and pieces ~$15. Have a Raspberry Pi polling weight, temperature and moisture every 5 min 24/7. Have 20 units running for mainly weight. Have temp by other means and moisture probes are "open" and will have to be wrapped with screen wire and ??? to keep the bees from propolis it over. The weight is the main thing to me. If want only local readout, only need loadcell, power supply, readout, and small box~$5. ~$25 to $30 dollars. Note I am a retired control system electrical engineering (40yrs) and the bees are my process. It will be interesting to know how long the weigh system per hive holds up.

 

I like the idea of adding some technology for monitoring overwinter when inspections would be detrimental.

 

I think it is inevitable to incorporate new technology to beekeeping to improve (especially if you are dedicated to professional beekeeping) as in any other field, however at present I think that many times people tend to incorporate technologies for snobbery without assessing whether it really is an advantage or not, the application to detect the queen by itself (it is really a simple application to implement with a convolutional neural network) seems to me a good example of this, I do not see it practical as Emmett explained, much simpler to mark the queen.

If we focus on mobile applications intended to be used in the field, while manipulating the hives, I think that any app whose input of information is by tactile means reduces its practicality. I think that here augmented reality can be useful in various tasks in the apiary, but for this augmented reality technologies still need to advance a little further.

 

Automated monitoring is good, especially for commercial operations. I have only one hive, so I stick with using my eyes in finding the queen (not always successful, so what?) and manually weighing during winter when my hive was struggling.

I would like to share what I heard on Beekeeping Today podcast - Combplex sell a small contraption that lets bees enter a tunnel, they get scanned by a camera for Varoa mites, and if any are detected, zaps the mite with a laser. Sounds very promising, just the old sceptic in me is wondering what are the unintended consequences...

 

I would like to share what I heard on Beekeeping Today podcast - Combplex sell a small contraption that lets bees enter a tunnel, they get scanned by a camera for Varoa mites, and if any are detected, zaps the mite with a laser. Sounds very promising, just the old sceptic in me is wondering what are the unintended consequences...

Serious reduction in wallet weight is likely number one on that list. Remember looking at this (or a rival?) a few years ago, estimated then at some ridiculous high price. Worse, it had some part that had to be replaced every 1,000 or so mites killed. Too rich for my blood, will stick with my MMK thermal.

 

I have a video that might be helpful on technology within beekeeping. I know there are many technologies that are starting to be introduced in the beekeeping industry. In the past, there has been genome sequencing and the Minnesota Hygienic Line that helped strengthen bees' resistence to diseases and pests like the Varroa Mite. There are even robotic hives that companies have created to track a plethora of information.

You can learn more about beekeeping technology by watching a video that my friend and I have created (a second video to be published soon). Here is the link to the first video:

 

I have a video that might be helpful on technology within beekeeping.

False Information. The video is entitled: "How One Proposal Saved The Entire Honey Bee Population." - the word 'Saved' is past tense, suggesting that the problem of Varroa Mites has been done and dusted. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Try 'Might Save' instead.
LJ

 

I'm thinking as a hobbyist with 2, 3 or 4 hives, this is all great fun but as you cross into being a sideliner or move into a small commercial operation, it's not practical by means of cost and effort. I'd also consider, even at the hobbyist level, are you taking the fun (aka work) out of beekeeping and moving into Metaverse? I don't want to do beekeeping from my couch.

An old timer once told me, while a group of us were discussing the proliferation of porn on the internet "porn's kinda like food-if I'm hungry, I don't want to look at pictures of beef-I want a nasty old, hot sizzling steak on a plate in front of me-same with naked women." I pity you people who feel your virtual reality is the way of the future as you sit on you couch in your mom's basement, must be a hell of a life.

 

I'm thinking as a hobbyist with 2, 3 or 4 hives, this is all great fun but as you cross into being a sideliner or move into a small commercial operation, it's not practical by means of cost and effort. I'd also consider, even at the hobbyist level, are you taking the fun (aka work) out of beekeeping and moving into Metaverse? I don't want to do beekeeping from my couch.

An old timer once told me, while a group of us were discussing the proliferation of porn on the internet "porn's kinda like food-if I'm hungry, I don't want to look at pictures of beef-I want a nasty old, hot sizzling steak on a plate in front of me-same with naked women." I pity you people who feel your virtual reality is the way of the future as you sit on you couch in your mom's basement, must be a hell of a life.

I don't quite understand the comment regarding augmented reality and the metaverse, with all due respect I think you are confusing concepts.

 

I'm not sure what part of my comments you don't understand. If it was related to the porn thing, in my world, I do bee keeping as a means to be outside, with nature, with the world. I want to handle my hives, not watch them on the screen. I think an experienced beekeeper, can find a queen in a few minutes because he can "read" the frame and knows where to look. Why do I want a machine in my hive? Short of genetic research, I see no point in the gadgetry discussed in this thread. There's no margin in it for a commercial beekeeper with a lot of hives (think costs) and as these "toys" proliferate, the hands-on skills are lost. As far as winter monitoring, well, here, in my climate, if you let the hive weight get down to a dangerous level in mid-winter and your sensor that you rely on goes off -the hives dead-you're, most likely not going to be able to open it to feed them. Checking weight in fall while they're still feeding, open the hive, check population and stores, tilt over hive for weight, move on to the next-2 minutes with an experienced eye. I am not technologically adverse, I'm an engineer with 2 post graduate degrees, working in the military and oil sectors-I've worked on operational systems that most people don't know exists. I also know what is nonsense and what is necessary.

 

To a large extent we are saying the same thing, that many times technology is used for snobbery as I said and you have to evaluate objectively if it is an advantage or not, for me the detection of the queen with an app is not, as I said.

Regarding augmented reality can be useful to facilitate certain tasks, in the industry it is already used in many areas and in beekeeping it can be useful in the future too and has nothing to do with the issue of metaverse or beekeeper from the couch which is what I meant, just another tool to facilitate tasks, in large farms it can be useful(I say this having worked on a project in which augmented reality and neural networks were used in an apiary and verified its potential, although the state of the art must evolve)

Regarding the phrase of the veteran, I totally agree

 

Hive Bloom is cheap, easy to use,{ and as I am older than dirt and do not use alot of technology, easy is important to me}.

 

I know of several worthwhile projects involving tech that is expensive but might be worth it.

Broodminder: Scales and sensors are available right now, Id love to bee able to afford it.

apisprotect.com: involves scales and sensors and will send data to your phone but is so far only available in UE. Ireland really I think. The US vs coming

hivesite.co: A solar-powered MMK that will do 4 hives at a time. New Zealand and down under only so far but looks great to me, I'd use it.

Hivegate and Protectabee both hoping to leverage mycelium vectored varroa treatments and antidotes for pesticide poisoning. Not exactly tech but I'm in :-|

Pollen-sized technology protects bees from deadly insecticides

ITHACA, N.Y. — A Cornell-developed technology provides beekeepers, consumers and farmers with an antidote for deadly pesticides, which kill wild bees and cause beekeepers to lose around a third of their hives every year on average. An early version of the technology – which detoxified a...

www.morningagclips.com

I actually bought the protectabee, not techy as in electronic but made sense to me.

For hobbie beeks YMMV. I think a scale would bee a great idea and more valuable for telling me what's what. In all, I am all for tech that will actually help. I have tried the app bee notebooks but it's more trouble than it's worth to me.
Laser mites?? omg lmao no nope way nah nyet 🤣
HTH

Zoo

 

I like my Bluetooth temp sensors. Only have them in 5-6 boxes this winter. I’m not really analyzing data, just checking for life.

f the variant is close to outside temp, I know there are few bees in the box. At that point I can shift positions with a stronger nuc to equalize on the next flying day if I feel that’s needed. Mainly just something I can view from inside my house to know they are alive, even under snow. ❄😎

 

We were all born with a computer called a brain . Some of those brains came with an app called common sense. It is foolishness to try to replace it with a phone