Keeping bees healthy can be a challenge. A lot of beekeepers have a large number of hives, often dispersed over many apiaries. They traditionally only get to inspect an individual hive once every few days or even weeks, and often even less frequently than that. Meanwhile, challenges for the honey bees have increased seriously as we all see how a bee colony can change itself dramatically over a short period of time due to different varieties of stressors.
But how can a beekeeper monitor a colony’s health status and implement corrective actions at the right time? We believe that the beekeeping industry is on the verge of a change as we see how it is evolving to meet the modern challenges and adapt to the digital era by remotely monitoring their hives.
What exactly can you measure if you decide to install remote monitoring systems at your apiary and how can that help you? Usually, the devices you need to install are two: An In-Hive monitor sensor and an electronic scale.
The In-Hive sensor stations will allow you to keep track of the following parameters:
- Hive temperature at brood;
- Hive humidity;
- Swarm management (by frequently analyzing it’ll help you to pick up pre-swarming conditions way in advance);
There are a lot of advantages to using a scale as well.
It can detect the hive’s weight changes that may indicate many events such as:
- Keeping track of nectar flow, when it is starts and ends;
- Comparing the productivity between colonies or knowing the current status of a separate colony;
- When winter feeding is needed and also knowing when supers get full;
- When part of the colony is about to swarm;
- You can find out if the hive has fallen because of wind or animal;
- Optimizing the number of your manual inspections needed simply because all the information you need is right in front of you – 24/7, delivered on an interactive dashboard;
The benefits of remote hive monitoring with Bee Smart is the quick notification of changes in colony conditions that can be linked to key events in the environment or internal to the hive.
The information we provide allows you to get to know your bees better, as a result, they are healthier and more productive simply because the bees get what they need when they need it.