Quote:
Originally Posted by Higgs Boson
I took your little survey and hope the responses are helpful in your
project.
I didn't set out to keep bees; a friend of mine asked if he could use
my garden, so I said OK; it sounded kewl, and I would be getting
honey. It was awesome! When they swarmed, they hung from my apricot
tree in a huge bulge; not dangerous; just waiting till the queen
signals it's time to go.
The only reason I discontinued was that a neighbor mentioned that he
was having bees in his attic. I was afraid to get ticketed or
whatever, since it isn't permitted, so eventually I had to ask the
friend to remove them.
But it was a great experience while it lasted.
HB
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Hi all,
Thanks for all your responses, and the comments on my survey, which were really helpful - I'm sure if I ever have to write another survey for any reason it'll be much better! I did put some time into making it, but probably ended up focusing too much on getting it to ask questions dependent to the previous answer, instead of constructing stronger questions. Thanks for putting up with it in any case
Higgs Boson, your story is particularly interesting, as it's the kind of situation I've been thinking about in more detail. I've noticed quite a lot of people keep their bees away from their homes, and was looking to design a tool to make it easier to look after them.
My current idea is to fit a sensor package that monitors weight, temperature and acoustic feed to a beehive, with the data collected transmitted wirelessly to the beekeeper. From the weight you can get an idea of the size of the colony so you can decide whether to go and check if you need to expand the space. Apparently listening to the frequency of the 'buzz' inside the hive can be used to predict swarming (
Beesource Beekeeping Apidictor) so the system could give an alert if the swarming frequency is detected.
Here's a wee concept sheet illustrating the idea:
sensorconcept.jpg picture by ulk - Photobucket
Does anyone have any thoughts, comments or criticisms about this idea? Just for the record I'm not trying to revolutionise beekeeping with my mad design skills, just exploring how technology might enable a wider range of people to take it up.
Cheers again!
Estelle