ASHBURN, VA — Local beekeepers have teamed up with Nova Labs members to collect data about their hives. Honey bees closely regulate the temperature of their homes, and especially the brood nest area where single degree differences can have a huge impact on young bee development.

We recently completed and deployed an Arduino-based data logger to a local bee hive colony, and gathered temperature data for a one month period. The data logger is weather-proof and solar powered, allowing it to log data for long periods of time without intervention.

The first month of data, when compared with local averages, shows that the hive temperature is indeed increased or decreased by the bees and kept stable relative to the outside temperature. This trial run also validated the weatherproofing and solar power design of the logger, which will now be deployed for rest of the winter to see how the hive fares in colder weather. Future enhancements will include humidity tracking, additional temperature probes, and remote data retrieval.

Apiculture is the keeping of bees by humans, for humans, and nothing but humans, so as to help humans.