I sell a
relatively inexpensive tool that can be used to track that metric.   If one
merely weighs one's hives, and subtracts and adds the weight of what one has
added or removed, one ends up with the weight of the colony stores over the
season, as bees and brood weigh essentially nothing in the grand scheme of
things.

The colony weight alone can reveal the significant events that result in
failure to survive, and hence, be a better basis for evaluating the "cause
of death".  



Sorry Jim,  completely disagree.  With all due respect to the "nectar
detector"  it is the basis of the problem in beekeeping.  Someone looking
for a gimmick to answer a question.

Starvation in winter is the only thing it can possible tell you,  and if you
had opened the dang hive and looked,  you wouldn't need a scale.

90% of hives are dying from something other than starvation,  and those are
the clueless.  If you allowed a hive to starve out,  you would fit into one
of the groups of the poorest beekeepers possible,  and a scale would not
have helped you.

Scales are fine if your trying to learn nectar flows,  but mine sits right
next to my flow hive.......

Charles

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