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gnuplot generated graph of hive data with wind conditions.

Links to hives have moved to hivetool.net

Order a Hive Monitor Kit

Order Form for the Hive Monitor Kit HiveTool Monitor Kits are made available through the kindness and hard work of volunteers at The Center for Honey Bee Research, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. They assemble and test the Hive Interface circuit broad, provide sensors and accessories and fulfill and track orders. Thanks!

HiveTool™

HiveTool™ is a collection of readily available, off-the-shelf hardware and free, open source software that continuously monitors a beehive. Computerized hive monitors provide real time and historic data and graphs of weight, internal and ambient temperature, humidity and light levels which give the beekeeper a noninvasive view into the hive. HiveTool won the 2015 Bayer Bee Care Community Leadership Award.

  • wiki.Hivetool.org - Documentation, instructions, and a forum for discussions on how to set up a bioserver to monitor a bee hive.
  • Hivetool.net - Access the network of monitored hives: status, graphs, download data, view the video feeds.

HiveControl™

HiveControl is beekeeper friendly alternative software for use with HiveTool suite of software and hardware. HiveControl may be used standalone or in conjunction with HiveTool.
HiveControl is at version 1.89, development has diminished in 2017-2018 with sporadic enhancements.
Caution HiveControl has NOT been successfully tested with recent versions of Raspbian, backup before attempting an update

Main Features:

  • Sensor Drivers work with HiveTool Sensor board
  • Local & Cloud Data Collection
  • Menu Driven Configuration Screens
  • Graphical Trends and Dashboard
  • Uploads data to HiveTool cloud
  • Video Bee Counter

Programmers can learn more about HiveControl on HiveControl Github

Uses

Hive Management

Hive graph 20111006 small.gif

Knowing what is happening in the hive is crucial to proper hive management. By knowing the beginning, end, and quantity of nectar flows, bee keepers can determine when to add and remove supers, when to move hives and where to locate hives to maximize honey production. Read More

Climate and Land Use Research

Athens LC V5.png

Plant/pollinator interaction is used to measure the performance of the environment, instead of the performance of individual hives. Read More

Education and Bee Science

RGNS mites.jpg

A program to attract students to Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM). Bee science includes agriculture, biology, botany, chemistry, computing, food, industrial arts, math, physics, programming, statistics – in short, something for everyone. Read More

Hardware

New Developer Kit

Dev Kit PCB installed on a Pi 2.

An early goal of Hivetool was to develop a $50 scale. A developers kit to get beta units in the field for testing, gather user feedback, and provide a platform to foster open source community development is available at cost plus a voluntary contribution ... Read More

Commercial Sensors

A scale hive (or bioserver) consists of a computer (desktop, laptop, router, SBC/SOC such as Raspberry Pi), which is used to record, display, and analyze data from sensors such as scales, thermometers, hygrometers, microphones, cameras, photocells and rain gage. Listed below are readily available, commercial, off the shelf products that are currently in use or undergoing development and testing. Read More

Software: Overview

Software flow diagram1a.png

For software installation instructions, see How to load hivetool on the Pi.

Hivetool can be used as a:

  1. Data logger that provides data acquisition and storage.
  2. Bioserver that displays, streams, analyzes and visualizes the data in addition to data acquisition and storage.

Details of how the image is created

Bee Counter

Tracks
BeeCounter

While a scale can reveal nectar flows, orientation flight and the general health of the hive, it doesn't answer all the questions. A bee counter using low cost off-the-shelf hardware is being designed and tested. Read More.


Two different approaches are shown,


How To

User manual, construction plans, solar design, troubleshooting. Read More

Hive Selection and Manipulation

Guidelines from Protocol for Scale Hive Measurements of the Honey Bee Nectar Flow. Read More

Data Warehouse

Since HiveTool™ is open source/open notebook, the entire primary record is publicly available online as it is recorded. Storing, organizing and providing access to the data is necessary. Read More

About

This open source project is comprised of beekeepers who work in electronics and information technology. Our goal is to produce software tools to monitor, manage and research bees and honey production. Read More

To Do

Lots to do! Whether you are a web site developer, database administrator, or programmer, there is something for you. Look over the list below - Read More

Why

Why put a computer in a hive? Read More

Projects

Site Index

Site Index

Contact

For comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an email to info at hivetool.net.