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Getting stolen is the only thing I could think of, temperature and hive humidity aren't usually problems, the beekeeper doesn't control those things, the bees d

Getting stolen is the only thing I could think of, temperature and hive humidity aren't usually problems, the beekeeper doesn't control those things, the bees do. Maybe there are a few other things it could be used for but i'm not sure what.

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
Hive theft has recently become an issue here in Ca. CA being CA...hives used for pollination services are taxed differently than hives used for honey/orchard pollination. Insurance also treats them differently. More: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/05/bee-thieves-cost-beekeepers-thousands/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/05/bee-thiev... [..] “I couldn’t think. I kept messing up the count,” he told me, sitting at a friend’s kitchen table the next morning, shaking his head. He’d hardly slept. “Over half of them were gone, 160 boxes”—days before California’s almond bloom, the biggest and most lucrative pollination event in the world. “Those thieves stole about $70,000 from me,” he said, tallying the insects, equipment, and lost pollination rental fees. Kuhnhenn, 39—tattooed, with a brown beard, and wearing a black “Right To Bear Arms” T-shirt and jeans—is a commercial beekeeper from Bantry, North Dakota. Like many others in his profession, he makes the bulk of his living from an annual pilgrimage to the Central Valley, where his bees help pollinate the state’s almond crop. In the off-season, back home on his ranch, Bulldog Honey Farms, he manufactures about 80 pounds of summer honey. Wintertime is almond season, and he’d been preparing for the bloom all year. His hives were ready to move into position in the almond orchards. Now was that time, and a bunch of his bees were gone.[..]
- quixoticelixer- 6y ago
  Theft is certainly a problem with Mānuka hives
spats1990 6y ago
The uses I know of are temperature in order to indicate when the bees have started raising brood in late winter/early spring--warmer hive temp=broodraising--and hive scales, which could theoretically tell you when the bees are about to swarm and would allow you to track how much honey the bees are bringing in in real time. Neither of these are a decent value proposition for commercial beekeepers.
petre 6y ago
One could have alarms for low/high temp/RH to alert the beekeper when the colony is threatened. Also maybe a weight sensor so they know how much honey there is in the hive. I'm not a beekeper so not entirely sure what they'd want. Anti theft beacons can be easily disabled, especially LoRaWAN and SigFox which need a bigger antenna.

jelliclesfarm 6y ago

Hive theft has recently become an issue here in Ca. CA being CA...hives used for pollination services are taxed differently than hives used for honey/orchard pollination. Insurance also treats them differently. More: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/05/bee-thieves-cost-beekeepers-thousands/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/05/bee-thiev... [..] “I couldn’t think. I kept messing up the count,” he told me, sitting at a friend’s kitchen table the next morning, shaking his head. He’d hardly slept. “Over half of them were gone, 160 boxes”—days before California’s almond bloom, the biggest and most lucrative pollination event in the world. “Those thieves stole about $70,000 from me,” he said, tallying the insects, equipment, and lost pollination rental fees. Kuhnhenn, 39—tattooed, with a brown beard, and wearing a black “Right To Bear Arms” T-shirt and jeans—is a commercial beekeeper from Bantry, North Dakota. Like many others in his profession, he makes the bulk of his living from an annual pilgrimage to the Central Valley, where his bees help pollinate the state’s almond crop. In the off-season, back home on his ranch, Bulldog Honey Farms, he manufactures about 80 pounds of summer honey. Wintertime is almond season, and he’d been preparing for the bloom all year. His hives were ready to move into position in the almond orchards. Now was that time, and a bunch of his bees were gone.[..]

quixoticelixer- 6y ago
Theft is certainly a problem with Mānuka hives

spats1990 6y ago

The uses I know of are temperature in order to indicate when the bees have started raising brood in late winter/early spring--warmer hive temp=broodraising--and hive scales, which could theoretically tell you when the bees are about to swarm and would allow you to track how much honey the bees are bringing in in real time. Neither of these are a decent value proposition for commercial beekeepers.

petre 6y ago

One could have alarms for low/high temp/RH to alert the beekeper when the colony is threatened. Also maybe a weight sensor so they know how much honey there is in the hive. I'm not a beekeper so not entirely sure what they'd want. Anti theft beacons can be easily disabled, especially LoRaWAN and SigFox which need a bigger antenna.