[ExI] Bee Watch

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf
Of BillK
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2015 2:32 AM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Bee Watch

On 16 December 2015 at 16:11, Dave Sill  wrote:
>>... I think something like solar/battery-powered wifi-connected cameras 
> that talk to a solar/battery-powered GSM-connected base station...
>so many of the components needed are already on the shelf.
>

>...Bluetooth connections can be up to 300 feet (with good conditions and
greater power requirements). Special equipment can extend the range
further...[...theft of equipment etc]  ...you have to think about the cost
of all that equipment compared to the cost of a hive...  BillK
_______________________________________________


OK here's the approximate cost breakdown.  BillK, I don't know these in
pounds, but last I heard two pounds was about three bucks, and a euro is a
little over a dollar.

A commercial beehive is usually a sturdy wooden box called a super (that's
what we used to call them) about 60 cm on a side, 40 cm tall.  With all the
stuff inside (the wired wax foundation, the racks and things) those cost
about 80 to 100 bucks each, and once filled with an established colony and a
healthy queen, it is worth 300 to 400 bucks depending on how much honey is
in there (the cost of that stuff is absurd for the last several years (don't
buy it (I mean it, just don't do it (use jam on your... (what do you guys
have, crumpets?))))) which can be as much as about 35 to 40 pounds in one
super in a good year.

OK so assume a prole has about 100 bucks per super and a typical bee yard
has about a dozen to fifty of these depending on how much pollen is
available, so a bee yard investment is typically 1k to 5k, and if it is
successful and healthy, its value is perhaps triple to four times that
amount.  With that in mind, let us estimate a reasonable investment in
surveillance equipment.

One theory on why bees are generally declining is systematic undernutrition.
This plausible in some areas, such as the suburbs where I live.  A known
problem with undernutrition is that in times of food stress, the colonies
send out robbers to get honey from nearby hives.  The hive under attack has
defender or soldier bees.  The defenders stay right with their hive and
fight it out right there at the entrance.  You can give a hive more defender
advantage by adding an entrance reducer.  Last time I was over at the
Sunnyvale apiary, I noticed all the hives had reducers in place.

When robber bees are doing their thing, the strongest hives go out and
plunder the weakest hives.  There in nature is an example of the principle
that weakness is provocation.  If the stronger hive manages to completely
overcome the weaker hive's defenses, that super will perish completely, for
the robbers will go in and slay the queen and her attendants and anyone else
in there, then take all the honey, so any remaining brood will perish as
well.  This is a value loss of perhaps 200 to 300 bucks.

When bees fight, they mean business.  They don't just wrestle: if two bees
engage, they don't give up.  At least one of those bitches is going to die.
During the battle, both bees buzz their wings, which makes a characteristic
sound.  We might be able to rig up a microphone with perhaps some kind of
special Fourier filter which recognizes the sound of a bee fight at the
entrance reducer.  

If we had equipment set up, perhaps a hive that was getting a lot of fights
at the entrance would signal a weaken hive, alerting the beekeeper to fetch
that one and quarantine it to a bee hospital, a place where there is plenty
of food and no strong hives nearby.  It would perhaps signal parasites,
mites and such, which weakens a hive's defenses and which will spread to the
healthy hives because of the fights.  

The strategy would be to put your strong hives together and weaker hives
together where they would not attack each other.

spike