>  > hive up so I gave it a
>  > good whack on the side to see if I could get a noise
>  > out of them. I heard
>  > NOTHING. As a newbie beekeeper, I should be taking
>  > that as a bad sign, right?
>
> Not necessarily, in WINTER bees may be pressed together
> in their little ball shaped cluster VERY tightly, and
> refuse to break loose to make some music for you, or
> for any old branch that happens to fall on top of the
> hive. This breaking loose is considered unhealthy
> during cold winter times, as it takes quite a while
> before a new cluster shape is arrived at between the
> 20,000 of them. During this slow process of cluster
> formation a lot of bees may fall pray to coldness,
> and stiffen up to immobility, which causes them to
> fall down and eventually die. This can cost the colony
> hundreds of bees per whack, and if it happens once
> too often, it may become a life-threatening situation
> for the entire colony ( because a certain minimum
> amount of bees is needed to keep the colony above
> freezing point. Please do not go around whacking hives
> too often. What you CAN try, though( but not on the hive
> you whacked before), is to put your ear against the wood
> of a hive, and knocking gently to see if you can hear
> anything. A soft hum from the outer bees in the cluster
> should suffice as sign of life; this cannot always be
> heard with your ears away from the wood.
 
I have an interface between the bee hive and my Pc. So it is possible to
measure some parameters like temp., humidity, weight of the hive
and...noise. So with a microphone in your bee hives and a temp sensor you
can actually see on the screen how the bees are doing, without disturbing
them.
Doesn't this sound good??
 
greetings,
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