We hope you have all had a good season and your bees are healthy and happy.
At the request of some researchers and pollination specialists, we have been working away on a new module which allows beekeepers to monitor the brood temperature and humidity as well as the number of bees flying at the hive entrance. We are referring to this as the Hive Strength Monitor and you can see the final prototype mounted on one of our test hives here on the right.
The module has a clip which allows you to hook it over the bottom brood box above the entrance. There is a sensor "looking" down at the doorway and keeping count of bees flying in and out. There is also a flat finger that protrudes into the brood chamber and sits just on top of the frames. On the end of this finger is a temperature and humidity sensor housed in an assembly that the bees will not propolise (we tried nearly 72 different versions).
See the sort of information the monitor provides in the charts below. It has already prevented one of our hives getting chilled brood.
We are about to build the first production units so if you would like to order some, please talk to us or your local distributor/agent below. It sends the data back via the existing Hivemind Satellite communication hub. We can set up different rates of sampling but the default is a reading every 3 hours, reported every 6 hours.
We also want to do a wifi version for hobbyists in the coming months. If there is demand for it, let us know -- we need a minimum threshold of customers to go ahead.
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