Interesting Topic:

It also matters if you are approaching the use of sensors as a mean of managing your hives vs trying to learn something about bees. 
My simple approach has been to use sensors (weight and temperature) to help me learn about how the bees interact in my local environment to help me improve my beekeeping practices and understand some of the enviro queues.  1 Temp sensor and 1 scale on a hourly scale will give you what you need. I want to do the management myself.

Now with my next project of defining and understanding hive configuration/setup needs for better wintering in sub-arctic climates my data needs have increased. My current setup limitations is that I currently have a decent vertical cross-sectional view of the back 3rd of the hive and I am forced to make lots of assumptions. I am now getting a better understanding of the importance of having basic horizontal level array of sensors (TH and maybe CO2) and really better defining my problem before you start (what am I trying to measure). (T for understanding heat flow Vs Ext Temps, H for understanding air flow/potential condensation areas of the hive and CO2 if I wanted to know more about the biological processes of the cluster).

With my engineering background and limited knowledge of complex biological processes, I tend to define my outside boundary conditions and then look inwards and try to generalize what is going in the cluster (pure heat generation - convection/radiation/thermal mass - conduction losses at the walls, etc...). In my professional field we have a saying " if you ain't going to use it don't measure it". 

Now for an outfit like this where they want to fully automate the management of bees with complex monitoring. The required algos are beyond human interpretation without AI and complex machine learning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdmUk3R6lo8

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