a Mr Linder snip...
Sorry Jim,  completely disagree.  With all due respect to the "nectar
detector"  it is the basis of the problem in beekeeping.  Someone looking
for a gimmick to answer a question.

Starvation in winter is the only thing it can possible tell you,  and if you
had opened the dang hive and looked,  you wouldn't need a scale.

90% of hives are dying from something other than starvation,  and those are
the clueless.  If you allowed a hive to starve out,  you would fit into one
of the groups of the poorest beekeepers possible,  and a scale would not
have helped you.

Scales are fine if your trying to learn nectar flows,  but mine sits right
next to my flow hive.......

my comment...
well I suspect experienced beekeeper that weight hives a lot and a lot of new beekeeper do and could limit a lot of problems by simply 'estimating a hive weight'.  I am not suggesting this needs to be done on a constant bases but does have survival benefits for beekeepers all along the scale from hobbyist to commercial.  evidently some one has marginalized this very important data point with out giving much thought to what it can and does reveal.  I don't break out my scale very often but when I do it is always beneficial.  Being somewhat of a minimalist I do this in a very simply fashion but do use some simple statistics to go from raw data to 'estimate'.

Is someone disagreeing just to be disagreeable? 

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