Open source solar honey bee hive monitoring system

Open source solar honey bee hive monitoring system

Goal:

Provide an open source device that remotely monitors key variables related to bee hives in a non invasive manner in order to know bees better, and to give relevant information to beekeepers. In the long term, collect data from several apiaries on a server to conduct large scale analyses.

Who?

The project was launched in early April 2017 by Olivier Emery, biologist and PhD student in Life Sciences studying honey bee gut bacteria (who also owns 3-4 hives). Several people are interested in actively joining the project team (more news to come).

How?

By using Arduino-based microcontrollers to take measures and transmit them wirelessly. One key variable is the weight of the hive for which we need to be build or hack a scale capable of withstanding 150-200kg. We're also interested in measuring how many bees come in and out of the hive as a proxy for foraging activity, as well as the temperature and humidity inside the hive and environmental variables (temperature, humidity, wind speed...). The project is at its beggining so the exact approaches still need to be defined, but we'll keep you updated :)