Well, we finally went ahead and did it. We have ordered an Arnia monitoring system for our Flow hive. For those who don’t know, here is how the makers describe the system:
Arnia is unique in combing hive acoustics monitoring with other parameters such as brood temperature, humidity, hive weight and apiary weather conditions. We can monitor and interpret the sound of a bee colony to assess colony behaviour, strength and health. The hive data can be accessed remotely from any internet enabled device in any web browser. http://www.arnia.co.uk
We think it will supplement our physical inspections, but also give us data when we can’t get to the hives. I think it is going to be both fascinating and useful. I will post a step-by-step commentary here on our experience with it, from delivery, to installation and data gathering. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. You know I am always willing to to try to answer them!
They don’t tell you on the web site, but it costs about as much as a full Flow hive classic, depending on the options you choose. It can be quite a bit less, but I went “full bore”.
Basic system in the US is $469 (scale and web link) and complete monitoring (temp, acoustics, humidity etc) is $649. Then you can add solar battery, weather station and other goodies to take it over $1,000 if you really feel self-indulgent (or bee-indulgent?). Additional hives are significantly less to add to the system, but I am just going with one for now. Can you tell it is my birthday soon?
For those who have scales and internal sensors AND use oxalic acid sublimation…
Does the OA foul the internal sensors? Do you remove them, clean them, or what?
The scales…if you have an open board bottom, now the lifted hive on the scale will get vapors around the sensors on the scale as well. How do you handle that?
I have not noticed any problems. I clean them with a soft dry cloth when I take the hive apart - about once or twice a year for the acoustic sensor, and during routine inspections for the temp and humidity sensors.
I replace the core flute slider with a doubled sheet of heavy duty roofing flashing. The vaporizer sits on top of that, so the OA vapors don’t go anywhere near the scale sensors.
