> >These excerpts show how confidence in correlating internal hive
> conditions with colony survival has changed over time.


I don't know that I'd go that far, Pete.  Previously, researchers were
limited by the measuring tools available.  For example, some went to great
lengths to construct clever
devices to measure in-cluster humidity.  Once thermocouples became
available, researchers hopped right on them.

In recent years, the ready availability of measuring devices has a number
of startups and research groups pitching that they can measure colony
health and condition electronically, and predict all necessary management
by computer.

I wonder about the end game.  At the far end, one startup that I'm advising
is developing completely roboticized beekeeping, in which a human is seldom
even involved.
I tell them that that may be of interest to large ag companies requiring
pollination services or honey production, but would not be of any interest
to those of us
who keep bees because we love personally caring for our ladies.

No telling how things are going to work out overall, but I suspect that
many beekeepers are going to continue to keep bees as they have since the
time of Langstroth.
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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