Electronic Colony Monitoring

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Electronic Colony Monitoring (Coordinator Dr. Frank Linton)

A Full Day EAS Short Course Program on Monday, Aug. 13^th, 2018

The current high rate of colony loss, 30%-40% annually, presents beekeepers with a conundrum. More-frequent inspections might reduce these losses by revealing small problems before they become big ones, but every inspection disturbs the bees and unnecessary inspections may themselves contribute to colony losses. Still, for many backyard beekeepers, the issue is not too many inspections but too few. How can beekeepers be alerted to small problems before they become big ones – avoiding either too many inspections or too few? The solutions presented in this workshop all involve inserting sensors into hives to monitor colony health and productivity remotely. Like the many sensors in your automobile, sensors in your colonies can keep you informed of your colonies’ well-being and alert you to problems early-on.

Sensor types

• · Weight: bees and honey (totals, rates of change), swarming, robbing
• · Temperature: brood volume, winter cluster volume, queen quality
• · Audio: flight, fanning, stress (parasites, diseases, queenless)
• · Video: flight, pollen, swarms, predators, & entrance activity
• · Odor: pheromones, diseases, nectar sources, pollutants…
• · Other: CO2, humidity, electrical charge, vibration, Infra-red light, weather, hive location/damage/theft

(subject to changes): Presenters include

• · Rafael Cabrera SolutionBee
• · Joseph Cazier Appalachian State, Boone NC
• · Huw Evans Arnia
• · Jeff Groff Shepherd U, Shepherdstown WV
• · William Meikle USDA, Tucson, AZ
• · Rich Morris, Theo Hartmann Broodminder
• · Kelton Temby EyesOnHives
• · James Wilkes Hive Tracks
• · Andrew Wootton RMIT U, Australia

In addition, several individuals will have posters and/or demos of their colony monitoring technologies set up around the periphery of the room. These will be open during the lunch time hour on Monday, August 13^th from 12- 1:30 for all interested in Conference Room AB (downstairs in the convention center).