Tom Barrett in Ireland asked about the apidictor. Eddie Woods developed this
device to listen to the bees. A microphone was inserted into the rear of the
broodchamber through a hole in the box. When not in use a large cork was
used to seal the hole.Eddie kept bees in Hertfordshire in the late 50s or
early 60s and some of these modified broodboxes can stillbe found in use
today,I have a couple in use in my own apiaries. I suspect the system had
its problems as it never became popular as a way of predicting what the bees
were going to do. I have never seen the actual apparatus that was used even
though Eddie kept his bees near where I keep mine today.Don Mapp, a
beekeeper a few miles from here in Essex spent several years measuring
temperature variations in a broodchamber using 64? heat probes linked to a
computerised monitoring system @ Queen Mary College in London. Don showed
that there were indeed measurable changes in the hive enviroment before
swarming. As far as I know he has not continued to pursue this line of
research and is now a teacher by profesion
              Peter Dalby