Good morning:

At the national meeting of AHP and ABF in January, 03; several commercial
beekeepers asked if there was anything available to deter theft of beehives
(especially with the high price of honey).  At that time, I did not have a
cost-effective solution.  Two recent developments can provide some help.

1) Joe Traynor, Scientific Ag Co has sent out placards and small, glass pit
tags costing $2.70 each.  He has a reader.  These grain of rice sized tags
can be inserted into a frame and provide a permanent and unique I.D. number
that is virtually undetectable without a reader.  These chips are used to
tag pets.

Although convenient to use, the cost is high and the range of the reader is
short.  Joe acknowledged these limitation in his October newsletter and
forcasted that a better technology or 'super chip' would be available from
us next year.

2)We have the super chip right now!  We recieved our first reader and chips
about 3 weeks ago and gave a demonstration to the MT beekeepers.

Wade Anderson, the President of the MT Beekeepers Association is now
looking for other beekeepers who might share in an order of these new
chips.  The advantages of the new RFID tag are lower cost, which will
become far lower in about two years, longer range (they can be detected or
read 8-12 ft away, not inches), and they are paper thin.  By 2005 or 2006,
this chip will be manufactured in billions per year and sold for pennies a
chip -- for use in large retail stores (the contracts are already in
place).  We are working with bee equipment suppliers to be able to soon
provide these chips already embedded in hive bodies and frames.

3) At this point, we and Wade want to see these chips in as many hives as
practical.  Tagging even one hive per pallet should act as a deterrant and
would surely help in hive recovery.  The cost per tag depends on how many
are bought at one time - its about $1.00 per tag for 1000 or fewer, roughly
50 cents for 50,000.  One retailer bought 500 million for 20 cents a tag,
but I doubt that we can find that many beekeepers.

4) If you want to tag your equipment with these tags before pollination
season, contact Wade at 406-357-3835.  We've got a reader and will work
with Joe Traynor to be sure that a reader is available for the west coast.
At this time, the readers are still pricey, but that will change in a few
months as small, hand-held readers come into the market place (prototypes
are being tested now).

5) Eventually, we see these tags as being part of an automated, real-time
inventory as well as part of a bee management system.  We have access to
related technologies that can relay information such as temperature, weight
gain and loss, etc. through relatively inexpensive systems.  At that time,
we hope to provide a bee/data management service to the industry -- but
that's a bit down the line.

Best Regards

Jerry Bromenshenk
Bee Alert Research at the University of Montana
Bee Alert Technology, Inc.

With respect to this issue, please respond to:
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P.S.  I will have a demo system at the upcoming California beekeeping
meeting in Lake Tahoe.

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