We are about to kick off a crowdfunding campaign for a WiFi version of our new Hive Strength Monitor.

So for all you hobbyists or researchers who would love to know how your hives are going each day, let us know now so we can build in some earlybee prices for Hivemind newsletter readers.

The modules will be around US$150, but we will aim to have the first units for newsletter readers at US$125, so if you want one (or two) please let us know so we can work out how many to have at that introductory price. We will also give you a heads up and preview of the campaign page when it is ready in the next couple of weeks.

So what is it again? The Hive Strength Monitor clips onto your bottom brood box, measures the brood temperature, ambient temperature, and keeps a count of numbers of bees coming and going from the hive every 30 minutes, and will report this back via your WiFi, or store it all until a smartphone with the new app is in range.

This will allow you to see if the brood temperature is nice and stable in 32-36 deg C range which tells you the queen is healthy and laying, see what time your bees start flying each day, when they come home, and how the numbers are building up each day, particularly in spring. It allowed us to save one of our hives at the start of last winter when it was struggling to maintain brood temperature as the nights got cold.

Again please let us know now if you are interested, by e-mail: christian@hivemind.co.nz

Orders for scales and hubs are starting to come in for the new season and we will be running low on stock soon, so if you are planning on ordering some new systems please let us know as soon as possible so we can plan appropriately and have them ready for you when you need them.

And just so you commercial guys don't feel left out of the new toys department, we also have a new rain gauge which can be easily integrated into your new or existing Hivemind system.

This can be a great tool for those of you where rainfall can be a leading indicator of a nectar flow, but also for sites where local rainfall can affect your ability to get there or not.

The rainfall data over the last six-hour period is gathered and sent along with the scale data and is presented on the chart as seen below.

Note the commercial version of the Hive Strength Monitor, with satellite reporting, are already available for purchase now.

The rainfall is presented on the site graph as a bar chart.

We did have one or two unforseen delays during the testing phase, see photo on the right, due to some nice cool Canterbury winter nights. But on the plus side we learned how to make some lovely stalagmites.

For you folks in Queensland, that is what ice looks like in the wild.

 

You can order these now from your local rep:

In NSW talk to Mark Page: mark.page@valley-industries.com.au, phone 0458 522 240

In QLD / VIC talk to Graham Beech: ntbees@gmail.com, phone 0437 179261

In West Australia talk to Myles Happ: myleshapp@gmail.com, phone 04 015 33336

Rest of the world, talk to Christian Walsh: christian@hivemind.co.nz, phone +64 21 846 445

 

Last year we supported an interesting project on Indiegogo, The Bee Understanding Project. The team from CollaborateUp took a really interesting approach to highlighting bee education issues by making a documentary where a farmer, beekeeper, crop advisor and entomologist in the US all swapped roles to see how the others work.

They did a great job and produced an excellent short film that you can see here, or click the picture on the left.