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

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.