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Portable Hive Scale
The goal is to build an accurate, electronic bee hive scale for under $50 that allows anyone to weight 4 hives per minute – up to 250 lbs each – without materially disturbing the colony.
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Problem
In my first year as a beekeeper, I had 2 out of 3 hives swarm. I think. I experienced a Tulip Poplar nectar flow. I think. I saw bees gather nectar – some days more than other days. I think. I say, I think, because I am led to believe that these things happened and I saw evidence that they did occur but I cannot be sure. And if they did occur, I cannot tell you if it was more or less than previous occurrences. But if I could have weighed the hive once or twice a day, I would have known for sure:
* I would know the population of the runaway swarm …estimated at 3500 bees per pound.
* I would know the mass of nectar (and pollen) gathered during the day and of water evaporated at night. One pound equals roughly 1.04 US pints.
* I would know the number of bees foraging by monitoring the loss of weight in bees leaving in the morning.
* I would know the rate of growth of daily nectar collection as a nectar flow began.
* I could compare my hives with the hives of others and with my own hives in previous years.
Lord Kelvin said, “To measure is to know.” If I could weigh a hive, I would know a lot more than I do now…
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How Does It Work?
The scale has 3 fingers or tongue that lift one side of the hive. The two outside fingers push down while the center finger lifts the hive. A $16 electronic luggage scale measures the force required to separate the center tongue from the outside tongues. The force to lift up the back of the hive is roughly half the total weight of the hive.
The goal is to build an accurate, electronic bee hive scale for under $50 that allows anyone to weight 4 hives per minute – up to 250 lbs each – without materially disturbing the colony.
______________________________
Problem
In my first year as a beekeeper, I had 2 out of 3 hives swarm. I think. I experienced a Tulip Poplar nectar flow. I think. I saw bees gather nectar – some days more than other days. I think. I say, I think, because I am led to believe that these things happened and I saw evidence that they did occur but I cannot be sure. And if they did occur, I cannot tell you if it was more or less than previous occurrences. But if I could have weighed the hive once or twice a day, I would have known for sure:
* I would know the population of the runaway swarm …estimated at 3500 bees per pound.
* I would know the mass of nectar (and pollen) gathered during the day and of water evaporated at night. One pound equals roughly 1.04 US pints.
* I would know the number of bees foraging by monitoring the loss of weight in bees leaving in the morning.
* I would know the rate of growth of daily nectar collection as a nectar flow began.
* I could compare my hives with the hives of others and with my own hives in previous years.
Lord Kelvin said, “To measure is to know.” If I could weigh a hive, I would know a lot more than I do now…
______________________________
How Does It Work?
The scale has 3 fingers or tongue that lift one side of the hive. The two outside fingers push down while the center finger lifts the hive. A $16 electronic luggage scale measures the force required to separate the center tongue from the outside tongues. The force to lift up the back of the hive is roughly half the total weight of the hive.
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This is the luggage scale that I bought off the Internet for $16. You attach your luggage to these hand-held devices and lift them with the luggage attached. The scale beeps or stops changing value and then you read off the weight. Their maximum range is about 125 lbs – less than a lot of bee hives. However, if you measure the hive by only lifting one side - and assume that weight in the hive is more or less centrally distributed - then you are only measuring half the hive's weight. You have a loss in accuracy but your maximum range is now extended to 250 lbs.
You do not need to use exactly the same scale shown here. However, you may need to get creative in attaching the luggage scale to the scale handle.
You do not need to use exactly the same scale shown here. However, you may need to get creative in attaching the luggage scale to the scale handle.
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IF I'm correct, this would indicate LESS weight than actual, but IF you're only "comparing" changes in weight rather than actual weight, then this error is not an issue.
A great instructable..
Regarding accuracy, I am most interested in relative changes - net weight loss and gain. That will tell me if the bees are finding nectar, absconding, foraging - or not, and so on. A platform scale can be more accurate but it has its problems also. See www.beehacker.com for more on that.
Best regards from France (Lorraine).
Seeing that (afaict) the distance lifted is very small, I think you can get a quite accurate total weight by weighing first one side of the hive, then the other, and adding them together. (If the distance lifted is very small, the center of gravity of the entire hive will shift very little, thus allowing you to add the two weights to get a total with fairly good accuracy.
I just put each hive on its own Nintendo Wii-Fit Board. ;-)
According to a recent survey of beekeepers last year, the largest cause of colony death over winter was not CCD but starvation. The bees collect honey to generate heat to survive winter. What, you thought they did it all for you? Without enough stores, they die. Grizzled old beekeepers will tell you that you can lift your hive and tell if they need feeding. Ooookkaaay. But why leave it to guesswork?
For more information on this invention (and other inventions), visit www.beehacker.com.
You wouldn't scatter some seeds and expect a beautiful, lush garden a couple of months later. Beekeeping's just like any other form of agriculture; without putting work into it, you can't expect great results.
One of the biggest problems you encounter is swarming. Swarming is how colonies propagate, and it involves the queen, along with a large portion of the workers, leaving the hive to start a new one elsewhere. Your workforce is hugely diminished, and raising up replacement workers and a new queen uses a lot of honey, meaning you won't get as much honey when you harvest. You can forestall this by a number of methods, but in order to do so, you have to realize that it's going to happen. A scale can help you figure that out.
i live in N. Idaho which is not the warmest place on earth. are you saying that in cool climates like here, i have to worry about the bees getting food even if the hive has honey because the honey is too cold for them to get? is there a way to warm the hive? i am building green houses... would it be useful to have hive against the green house to warm in a bit in winter? i was not thinking about these things at all... thanks for bringing it to my attention :-)
Click here to learn about beekeeping activities near N. Idaho and Spokane.
This observation was made at night with the assistance of a handheld flashlight, and there must have been MILLIONS [or it seemed so] of bees on that hive. When the light of the flashlight was trained on any portion of the hive, the bees seemed to go wild and began making a loud "humming" noise, wing beating I guess.
Being untrained in bees back then I was absolutely ASTOUNDED at the size of that hive, AND the TREMENDOUS HUMMING NOISE they made when a flashlight was shined on them at night.
The combs were started at and hanging from the ceiling joists [about 7 or 8 feet above the floor] at the right front corner [just to the right of the door opening, and there were about a DOZEN "FANS" of comb that reached from the ceiling joists almost to the floor.
And from the front edges of the combs to the side wall to which they were also attached averaged about 3 or 4 feet!!!!
That means something like 25 square feet per comb, and with about a dozen combs, that approximately equals some 300 square feet of comb, and being double sided, that means about 600 square feet of honey filled comb!!!!!
I only recently began reading and studying, and considering to begin beekeeping, and knew little to nothing about bees back then.
seeing that wild hive must have been truly awesome though... and a little scary i bet. as i was reading your post i was picturing the whole thing and it was an intimidating scene to say the least :-)
Very well thought out and made.