I’ve finally gotten my hive monitoring system built and installed to a hive here at home. It allows me to see trends in hive weight from bees coming and going, gaining weight from nectar, losing weight as they evaporate water out while drying the honey, temperature and humidity inside the hive and out, and more. The monitor is based on a raspberry hive. It’s sensors currently are load cells for weight, temp and humidity sensors, and a network connection to obtain weather station data about rain and sunrise/sunset times, etc. Below is a week of data. You can see the green weight line showing fluctuations in weight over the days. There are a few abrupt changes caused by adding or removing boxes from the hive to test the scale.You’ll also notice humidity has been riding near 100% most days. The steady red line is the temperature inside the beehive, controlled by the bees generating heat, or fanning to cool down the inside space.
Despite working in IT, I prefer spending my time outdoors. I enjoy beekeeping, hiking, camping, and about anything else I can do outside. A Do-It-Yourself’er, I’ve spent much of my life learning new skills like beekeeping, carpentry, mechanics, construction, and more. This gives a refreshing break from the days of screen time we all endure.