What is the perfect beehive?

[Jg9753]

Hello community,
I am here because I know that on forum websites I will find the most experienced and active beekeepers around- I am 17 and starting a Design and Technology coursework project at college, and I'm planning on creating an interactive beehive! I plan to add sensors within the beehive to monitor temperature and humidity and other factors such as weight. I'd love to know your feedback on this and this will count as excellent primary research! Ive made a form on google forms which is completely anonymous as I'm just in the process of collecting data for my project. I hope you can spare the 5 minutes it will take to fill in

https:// forms. gle/ LuSzUZy8mT1v8Hnm9

Thanks!

 

[beebopper]

Hello community,
I am here because I know that on forum websites I will find the most experienced and active beekeepers around- I am 17 and starting a Design and Technology coursework project at college, and I'm planning on creating an interactive beehive! I plan to add sensors within the beehive to monitor temperature and humidity and other factors such as weight. I'd love to know your feedback on this and this will count as excellent primary research! Ive made a form on google forms which is completely anonymous as I'm just in the process of collecting data for my project. I hope you can spare the 5 minutes it will take to fill in

https:// forms. gle/ LuSzUZy8mT1v8Hnm9

Thanks!

Link not working for me. Is this for an EPQ ?

 

[madasafish]

The perfect hive for me is large, easy to assemble,easy to inspect and light to lift when full.

It does not exist.

 

[Finman]

Many try to be perfect in beekeeping and do 10 Times Moore work with hives than needed

I have no idea what is a perfect hive. First of all it is practical...

.

 

[Anduril]

The easy answer to a perfect beehive is a tree. Anything else is man made with imperfections.

 

[Finman]

The easy answer to a perfect beehive is a tree. Anything else is man made with imperfections.

Amen ( so it be )

 

[Murox]

Take a look at history, in 1814 Ukrainian Petro Prokopovych gave beekeepers the frame as a module of the beehive - which is now used today by millions beekeepers all over the world. He also invented a wooden partition with apertures, through which only working bees could pass (Queen Excluders).
Lorenzo Langstroth observed that Prokopovych's frames separated from each other by a gap of 8mm (0.3in) - "bee space" - prevented the building of brace comb.
In 1852, two years after the death of Petro Prokopovych, Langstroth took out he US patent.

Just adaptions to make it easy for people to exploit/harvest the fruits of bee labour. Define “perfect hive”.

 

[Finman]

Just adaptions to make it easy for people to exploit/harvest the fruits of bee labour. Define “perfect hive”.

It is like many ask here " best practice" o:t "best polyhive".

 

[For want of a better word]

One with a tap on it so the beekeeper can just fill jars of honey direct from the hive without any messing around beekeeping etc etc!

 

[Finman]

One with a tap on it so the beekeeper can just fill jars of honey direct from the hive without any messing around beekeeping etc etc!

Innovation in series " how to become rich".

 

[For want of a better word]

Innovation in series " how to become rich".

Pray tell us more... you mean someone has got there before me?

Chons da

 

[buzzin]

derekm on here will probably give you chapter and verse!

 

[coffindodger]

Hello community,
I am here because I know that on forum websites I will find the most experienced and active beekeepers around- I am 17 and starting a Design and Technology coursework project at college, and I'm planning on creating an interactive beehive! I plan to add sensors within the beehive to monitor temperature and humidity and other factors such as weight. I'd love to know your feedback on this and this will count as excellent primary research! Ive made a form on google forms which is completely anonymous as I'm just in the process of collecting data for my project. I hope you can spare the 5 minutes it will take to fill in

https:// forms. gle/ LuSzUZy8mT1v8Hnm9

Thanks!

Sorry, couldn't get link to work. Maybe it would be interesting to decide on the positions for the sensors in a box then build a hive around that. Top bar aside, all the hives in general use are variations on boxes into which frames of wax are installed. The preferrences are very much linked to the way different people use them (geographical area, type of bee, etc). If you are measuring weight on a continuing basis you need to consider the space needed. If the project is to be completed in an academic semester then will it be one when the bees are bringing in food and expanding or when the colony is using its stores? Maybe you should be thinking of a nuc rather than a full hive? Suggest you have a look at the Scientific Beekeeping site which has lots of good data for your background.
Lots of success with your project; I'm sure it will be fun and rewarding.

 

[Repwoc]

Sorry, couldn't get link to work.

It's necessary to remove the spaces in the URL:

https://forms.gle/LuSzUZy8mT1v8Hnm9

 

[coffindodger]

It's necessary to remove the spaces in the URL:

https://forms.gle/LuSzUZy8mT1v8Hnm9

Thank you - all good now

 

[mazzamazda]

In 1852, two years after the death of Petro Prokopovych, Langstroth took out he US patent.

According to Beekeeping old and new (Herrod Hempsall) it wasn't Langstroth who was the first to design the moveable frame hive, it was someone in Scotland, beautiful hive too.

 

[Beefriendly]

Whilst Langstroth is usually accepted as discovering "bee space" he was quite late as Huber described the constant distances between combs about a century earlier. It was Langstroth who made them work for easy removal of frames.

Removable frames had been used for quite a while, but they required levering and cutting out as no bee space.
In fact Langstroth's original finding was that a small space above the frames meant the roof wasn't "glued down" next time he came to inspect.....then he had his Eureka moment and applied the gap to the frame edges.

 

[Murox]

Yes, Huber's 'Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles' was published in 1792 with an English translation in 1806. His second volume came out in 1814.
Langstroth had plenty of good information to refer to.

 

[oxnatbees]

Hi

the link works if you remove a couple of spaces, but then I am denied access because I am "not in your organisation."

I spent a lot of years designing instrumentation. I suppose my advice is:

- Use a hive type which someone can help you with. I began with a Top Bar Hive and when I needed help there was no one around to show me how to use it. Find a local beekeeper / beekeeping organisation and ask what they use.
- Consider using a nucleus hive to keep size and costs down. A nucleus hive is used for small starter colonies.
- Buy sensor modules where you can, because it turns out that wiring up and using a "simple" sensor has many unforeseen problems. For example a humidity sensor can be very temperature sensitive, a temperature sensor can pick up false signals from mobile phones, etc. A module seems more expensive but most problems are sorted out. And many offer standard interfaces to computers.
- How will you power the sensors? Batteries won't last long... Wifi and Bluetooth gobble power...
- Bees propolise everything in a hive. In other words, they cover everything with a sticky resin. This blocks microphones, humidity sensors, etc! Also insects crawl inside things. I have seen designers who were proud of how splash-proof their optical instruments were, but paranoid about spiders crawling inside!
- Weight sensors have a problem. If you are trying to measure a small change (say 100 grams) in a heavy object (say 20kg) you may find that on different days you get different readings, even though you know it is the same weight. This could be due to temperature, aging, cross-interference from light or many other things.
- Oh yes... check your sensors AND CIRCUITS don't react to light too 8) That one has caught out many people!
- Don't re-invent the wheel. Sit back, and think what the project is meant to teach you. I suspect it is "how to approach an arbitrary problem", not "how to spend 3 years full time re-inventing things people have already done". Imagine you are an architect - you don't get involved in designing and manufacturing radiators, you buy them as modules.

Good luck