Hive-Tech, the beehive monitoring system by 3Bee

In order to know the health of the families, the beekeeper must periodically inspect the hives and carefully check them one by one. The procedure is the same in winter and summer. What can change are the different climatic conditions and the swarm's stage of development. In any case, the beekeeper must ensure that the bees are well, even before inspecting the apiary. In order to optimise a visit, one must operate in the absence of wind, during sunny days and, preferably, when the foragers are outside. These visits, however, should not be too frequent, because each one represents a trauma for the entire family. However, this is subject to the various techniques used to control varroa infestation.

The beekeeper must assess many parameters, as quickly and accurately as possible, to understand whether the swarm is healthy or not. Certainly the presence of pests has a significant impact, as does disease in general. Then one looks for the queen bee: is it present or is the family orphaned? Also, one must make sure that she is laying eggs. Brood stopping is normal at certain times of the year, but a queen that does not lay is a symptom of weakness and instability. Especially during the swarming period, however, it is important to check whether or not the bees are building real cells. At the same time, by analysing the individual honeycombs in the nest, one must check whether there is brood and whether this is abundant or scarce. Thanks to visual inspection, one can estimate the strength of the family and the presence of disease, but also the quantity of stocks and, thus, decide whether one should intervene by providing extra nutrition to the bees.

Basically, inspecting one's own apiary is not an easy job: it requires time and is bound to particular climatic conditions and family development. The beekeeper cannot go and check on his bees whenever he wants, or even as often as he wants. As we have seen, opening the nest does not do the bees much good and, to cause as little damage as possible, the whole procedure must be done in spring and autumn during the hottest hours of the day, roughly from 11am to 4pm, and in summer during the coolest hours of the morning or evening and always preferably in the absence of wind and with a certain speed.

It would be really useful to be able to check the health of one's bees without having to constantly go and disturb them, risking more harm than good. Being able to conduct targeted inspections would be better for them, but also for the beekeeper, who would save a lot of time, especially if apiaries are located far away from each other. This is where the technology developed by 3Bee comes to the rescue, whose monitoring systems allow the beekeeper to have the biological parameters of his hive under control at all times. And yes, literally at his fingertips, as he can control everything from the comfort of his app on his phone!

The 3Bee monitoring system consists of a complete scale and sensors that must be installed directly inside the hive. Thanks to the electronic sensors, data is collected on weight, temperature, humidity and ssound. By correctly interpreting the data and graphs, it is possible to obtain an overall indication of the swarm's health status, highlighting some of the most common problems that arise naturally or otherwise. Thanks to Hive-Tech, the beekeeper will be able to see on the PC or APP the trends related to brood performance, presence or absence of the queen, possible diseases, preparation for swarming, production and much more.

3Bee will present the Hive-Tech beehive monitoring system at Apimell, the most important beekeeping exhibition in Italy, which will be held next 1,2,3 and 4 March in Piacenza. Come and discover our product: you will have the opportunity to enjoy discounts designed especially for participants. If you want to find out what the event is all about, visit our website on the dedicated page and subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date!