[ExI] Bee Watch

[spike]

From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Dan TheBookMan
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I think something like solar/battery-powered wifi-connected cameras that talk to a solar/battery-powered GSM-connected base station would be the way to go… Dave Sill

 

>…Does every last give even need to be watched? Wouldn't a good small randomized sample tell us much for a given area? …Regards, Dan

 

Ja.  One of the biggest challenges facing beekeepers today is theft of hives.  The best bee sites are often way out where they cannot be watched.  Thieves know that bees are docile at night, so they are easily stolen just by dropping a garbage bag over the hive and off they go.  Stolen bee hives are easily disguised or placed where they can never be found.

 

So perhaps we could somehow dual-purpose the hive-watching equipment as anti-theft devices.  Then perhaps the sheriff can scare up donations or get the county government to offer a reasonable grant, since it costs county law enforcement money to deal with bee theft.  If they catch the bastards, perhaps the judge can arrange to use the fine or bail to underwrite bee-watching equipment (they do that when they catch taggers: use the fines to pay for painting over the graffiti.  (Besides that, it strokes my sense of justice to have fines from bee thieves used to pay for equipment to catch bee thieves.))  

 

Then we figure out a way to do video sampling off of the crime-stopper equipment to study beehive activity, perhaps to get clues for early detection and control of Varroa mites, which reduce hive activity.  It might also have some kind of signal when the bees are finding insufficient nutrition, such as time/temperature patterns in the entry/exit counts.

 

Cool!

 

spike

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