Hive Weighing

[Hombre]

Whatever you do, make sure that you break the stiction between hive and stand or stand and ground before you start trying to weigh.

Good job you only have one hive!

As you get more hives, they become too close to have the room to do it as you might wish to or the ground is less than ideal, or the weighing apparatus is too ungainly for you to be able to lug it about with you from apiary to apiary.

 

[Goran]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2O_qTj_GUrY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d31Ghr4hprY

But this is for somewhat standard hive, don't know how it will go for TBH..
Sorry if I may ask, if You have one hive why would You need scale anyway?

 

[Finman]

.
When you have 1 hive, there is no idea to weigh the hive.

Only way is open the hive and look what is inside:

- beecluster compared to all frames
. how much food
- how much capped
- how much brood

I have weighed my hives with bathroom balance. I put it under back side.
When the weigh is between 25-30 kg, it is ok
One box hives I do not weigh. I feed them full.

So Pargyle, look inside the hive. Don't do science with one hive.

 

[Swarm]

Sorry if I may ask, if You have one hive why would You need scale anyway?

 

[user 6228]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2O_qTj_GUrY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d31Ghr4hprY

But this is for somewhat standard hive, don't know how it will go for TBH..
Sorry if I may ask, if You have one hive why would You need scale anyway?

interest... curiosity...

 

[alanf]

You could weigh tall hives the way Mike Palmer does. He described it in the NHS lecture but there are a couple of photos he has elsewhere:

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/frenchhill/weighinghives2.jpg
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff61/frenchhill/weighinghives3.jpg

As he described it, he weighs once a year before autumn feeding. He has a target weight for each set of boxes and adds feed cans to enable each hive to make that weight. From memory an example was 155 pounds for one of his three box hives. It's a bit involved for more regular weighing but as he put it: if you lift by hand, after a while they all feel heavy while overfeeding costs him money. For him weighing is practical and economical which is great when you're operating hundreds of hives commercially. If you have one (or two) over feeding is less of an issue but knowing the weights you go into winter with each year is reassurance.

 

[Goran]

interest... curiosity...

OK. I understand.
If all the people think the same it will be boring.
If I have one hive I would treat it as the book - reading every paper ( frame).. It would be more fun for me..

Cheers..

 

[pargyle]

interest... curiosity...

Exactly ... it's one more piece of information. I don't really want to open the hive during the winter to check for stores so my daily temperature and humidity measurement alongside the weekly weight will give me an idea about what is going on inside the hive ...

 

[Hombre]

In most UK commercial beekeeping there will be a diversity of apiaries, with ground that is in many cases is likely to be less than ideal or conducive to weighing.

Hefting tends to be standard practice and takes little time. In fact costs of overfeeding are probably made up for by the saving in cost of the time taken to get a more scientific result.

I'm not against weighing per se, (Percy is a good weight thank you!) but a simple, reliable, quick and inexpensive solution appears almost as far away as ever.

Sound and temperature/humidity monitoring has however made great advances in recent years.

 

[pargyle]

Whatever you do, make sure that you break the stiction between hive and stand or stand and ground before you start trying to weigh.

Good job you only have one hive!

As you get more hives, they become too close to have the room to do it as you might wish to or the ground is less than ideal, or the weighing apparatus is too ungainly for you to be able to lug it about with you from apiary to apiary.

Yes ... it's a bit easier for me with a Long Hive ... but weighing is not something I envisage I would be doing for every hive in the future ... just providing me with information about my (somewhat non-standard) hive, particularly in its first winter:

This might make it a bit clearer ...

 

[SteeveeTee]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Salter-Co...en_BathroomAccessories_SM&hash=item43c11580c2
Heard a great idea at our association meeting, take on of the bathroom scales in the link apart and you have four sensors (one for each leg of the hive), these can be rigged up under the hive. With a bit of electronic knowledge it could even be linked to a transmitter allowing continual monitoring of the hives weight.

The only thing I'm not sure of is how they are tared if they are left in place or whether this is a problem.

 

[user 6228]

The bathroom scales have quite a small output from the load cells and they are not the conventional arrangement. The issue for me with those will be the low level of resolution and the matched cabling that is needed. I have got two sets of these to try.

 

[pargyle]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Salter-Co...en_BathroomAccessories_SM&hash=item43c11580c2

The only thing I'm not sure of is how they are tared if they are left in place or whether this is a problem.

Hmmm ... if they are like my bathroom scales they have an auto switch off function and have to be activated by a tap on the platform which switches them on and zeros them. Once they are weighing something they appear to display the weight indefinitely ....

Weigh beyond my electronic capabilities

 

[pargyle]

Well ... the ebay weighing scale arrived and I have to say that it far exceeded my expectations ... it's made of metal, it's substantial and they provide two really heavy duty hooks to attach it to a hanging point and whatever has to be weighed. Nice big dial on it .... and a tare adjustment that allows up to a 15Kg tare to be set.

Very pleased ...better get on and make a gallows so I can weigh the hive ... watch this space !

Can see a few future uses for this bit of kit ...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My bathroom scales would be no good - they alway give a figure way too far above a correct weight.