Temperature Monitored Bee Hives

The University had a requirement for the purchase of six identical honeybee hives, equipped with sensors allowing the spatially resolved (wireless) monitoring of the temperature of each frame as per the following minimum technical requirements:

• the dimensions of the hives will match those of the 'British Standard Hives' brood boxes. • Each frame will have 30 sensors or more, homogeneously distributed. • Each frame foundation comb will be made of plastic, with protruding hexagons approx. 200 microns tall, for the bees to take over the building of the honeycomb. The sensors will be embedded in the plastic and not accessible to the honeybees. • The plastic foundation comb will be 150 microns thick, or less. • The data will be transferred wirelessly to a computer. • The frame's internal battery will last six months or more and will be conveniently changeable. • Software will be provided where the user will be able to adjust, in particular, the frequency of the measurements and access the data conveniently. If possible, software is to run on Ubuntu or Linux or Raspbian O.S. • No more than 10 mins will be required to interrogate the entire array of sensors within one hive.