Thermal Imaging

[Mike a]

We decided to buy a thermal imaging camera and my wife has been on an industry approved course and is trained to PCN1 standard working towards PCN2.

Whilst playing with the camera which was on lone to us whilst ours was being repaired we filmed this. A cup of tea....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMpY-PRMoHg[/ame]

Over the Winter I hope to be able to take some pictures from underneath some of my bee hives through the mesh floors to see what the temperature ranges are and how they move around, of course this depends if the weather is good enough to visit them each week.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Groovy!

 

[Bee-Key-Pur]

Cool, can't wait to see the results...

 

[Cazza]

That looks brilliant. Almost a work of art.
Cazza

 

[pbh4]

Mike,

It is a shame you posterised it in the second half. The most interesting thing in the hi-res first half was what appears to be Benard convection cells visible in the surface of the tea showing that the upward flow of hot fluids is by no means as simple as you might imagine. Nice video!

Paul

 

[oliver90owner]

Mike a,

Virtually instant knowledge of colony being alive, too? Better than banging the side and listening for a hiss? Stethoscope is cheaper but not so definitive. Nice toy.

Movement - I check for cappings underneath if necessary, but not quite as responsive as actually 'looking'.

I am now wondering if there is enough IR to 'activate' my night viewer. No idea of temperature, but may show an image.

Regards, RAB

 

[Headnavigator]

A cheaper alternative is a laser digital thermometer which will give an almost instant temperature reading of any surface you point it at - I've been planning to use it for checking colony temps through the mesh floor this Winter.

 

[Mike a]

A cheaper alternative is a laser digital thermometer.

Definitely, we bought our camera and waited 3 months for it to arrive only to find it didn't work but its fascinating to play with. It is a very expensive toy but I'm curious to see if I can take a picture of heater bees with it and learn more about the cluster during Winter. (unscientifically of course).

PBH4 - Benard convection cells

I have no idea what they are as I didn't go on the course but I'll google it later. Clare (wife) was learning how to set the camera up one evening and by accident the camera was pointed at the cup of tea when she spotted the strange patterns on the surface. So we set the camera up in such a way not to get reflections and filmed it.

 

[Rosti]

Really looking forward to seeing the results Mike

 

[Mike a]

Hives

First batch of pictures taken last night at one of my apiaries. Air temp was still a very mild 10'C at 20:00hrs.

wooden national brood - crown board - super with fondant

wooden long hive : Dartington (12 frames - frame feeder - divider - 10 frames) Dark strip is a piece of mesh pinned across the entrance to reduce it down to a two bee space gap

Brood and a half - Deep roof

Strong NL colony - 3 supers - crown board - 50mm eke for fondant.
(Left side of picture - Paynes poly nuc - no signs of heat this distance)

MB langstroth nuc double brood

Left to Right - wooden national 14x12 and super - crown board - 2 empty supers
Back - wooden 14x12 nuc
Just left of centre - 5 frame polish poly nuc (difficult to see)
right of centre - MB poly lang
far right - MB poly lang

For those of you who know about IR images these were taken without setting the camera up fully to take into account various factors ie emissivity or reflections.

 

[Headnavigator]

Mind-boggling! What fascinating pictures, thanks for sharing them.

 

[oliver90owner]

Fab results and without even trying. Hook one of these (and an Apidictor) to a data processor and let the computer run all the diagnostics and it would probably tell yo morethan the *rnia thing.

The one thing I did note was that the brood in the Dartington looks to be in the wrong (should we say 'less than optimal') position for wintering? Poorer insulation from the weather and the risk of falling bees blocking the slot in the floor (but even so, I doubt it would block it all the way across).

Regards, RAB

 

[RoofTops]

Very interesting but the strength of the colonies also needs to taken into account which is why I think the nucs do not show much heat escaping - there are not so many bees and any brood, which would be warmest, is probably very small in size.

Also interesting to see little heat escaping from the roofs of any hives, although I guess the wooden hives have metal roofs and this may affect the readings.

 

[itma]

First batch of pictures taken last night at one of my apiaries. Air temp was still a very mild 10'C at 20:00hrs.
...
For those of you who know about IR images these were taken without setting the camera up fully to take into account various factors ie emissivity or reflections.

Fascinating! Thank you - looking forward to more.

But I don't know how much one can trust at its face value what one 'sees'.

With an air temperature of about +10, all the roof temperatures appear consistently MUCH lower, barely above freezing!
Is that perhaps a reflection of the sky rather than a real temperature?

 

[Mike a]

The one thing I did note was that the brood in the Dartington looks to be in the wrong (should we say 'less than optimal') position for wintering? Poorer insulation from the weather and the risk of falling bees blocking the slot in the floor (but even so, I doubt it would block it all the way across).

Regards, RAB

The left half of the hive is where all the brood nest and stores are, approx 6 good 14x12 frames worth plus a good sized lump of fondant in the roof space above a crown board above them. The colony 'was' reasonably good sized last time I checked and feed them. The right side is full of frames only to stop them building their own comb down from the crown board and to fill the space.
The hive is made from 12mm pine planks so not very thick but since I made it 3 years ago the colony has come through each Winter just fine. The entrance is at least 50mm above the floor so I doubt there will be any issues with the entrance being blocked by dead bees.

Very interesting but the strength of the colonies also needs to taken into account which is why I think the nucs do not show much heat escaping - there are not so many bees and any brood, which would be warmest, is probably very small in size.

Also interesting to see little heat escaping from the roofs of any hives, although I guess the wooden hives have metal roofs and this may affect the readings.

I could of said the approx size of each colony along with each picture, but the pictures show this pretty well by the size and colour range. Easy to see the NL colony is by far the strongest and I wasn't surprised to see the whole hive looking like its lit up. Out of all the wooden hives the only hive shown with a metal roof is the NL colony, the rest have a sheet of foil backed insulation under the felt and a good lump of fondant covering the hole in the crown board.

------------
Almost forgot to add some of these hives have either one piece plastic frames or plastic foundation sheets so the angle I take the picture from may make a difference.

 

[BeeJayBee]

For those of you who know about IR images these were taken without setting the camera up fully to take into account various factors ie emissivity or reflections.

Out of interest, do you think you'd get the same, or similar, resulting image using an IR 720 filter?

 

[TNT1066uk]

nice pics

 

[oliver90owner]

The entrance is at least 50mm above the floor

Ahh, I see. I'll mention it, as Buzzworks might not want to appear pedantic, but without all the 'required' attributes (including the under-floor entrance), it's not really a proper Dartington. Close enough for most, though.

6mm ply walls (on a nuc) was thick enough for them to survive last year, so 12mm is obviously more than enough.


It will save you buying a stethoscope to listen to the bees (cheaper than an apidictor), so thats a fiver saved already!

Regards, RAB

 

[keith pierce]

That is just brillant . I want one

 

[keith pierce]

I would love to see what these heater nurse bees, covering queen cells, look like with your termal camera





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