I made an engineering mistake in my earlier reply. I took the specs as given and explained why they are not (yet) possible at the preferred price. I should also have discussed what could be possible if we hold price constant and compromise on specs. It might be good enough.

Entirely-passive "long-range" RFID chips are already available in the dime-to-quarter price range. Long-range in RFID means up to a meter. Since the chip could be on the opposite side from you, that means you need to be standing right next to the box. But ONLY next to it. You wouldn't need to touch the box and in particular, you wouldn't need to touch the specific place where the chip is located.

So if you can make it practical to get within arms-reach of the suspected-stolen hives, RFID-chipping your supers could be feasible already. (You will still want two, arranged orthogonally, in each super to be chipped.)



Mike Rossander



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