Hi:
 
We are wiring 15 hives to continuously monitor anything and everything
that we can - brood nest temperature, relative humidity, bee flight
activity, air flow direction and speed, etc.  These are small nucleus
hives, with 1-3 pounds of bees, and 10-30 pounds total weight (depending
on time of year, experiments being conducted, etc.).  All of the hives
are mounted on a roof and all of the measurements are being conducted
using a 486 IBM-compatible PC with an A-bus card data system.
 
Our biggest technical problem is in finding an accurate, yet inexpensive,
sensor to monitor hive weight changes.  We have tried a variety of
pressure transducers, pizeos, etc.  They tend to either be too
insensitive to pick up small changes such as bees coming and going, or
too expensive (we can't afford to put a research grade electronic balance
under each hive).  We would like to keep the cost below $200 per hive.
 
If anyone has any insights or can point us to components - or even better
- circuit diagrams, please respond directly to us.
 
Thanks
 
Jerry J. Bromenshenk
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT  59812
Tel:  406-243-5648
Fax:  406-243-4184
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]