RFID Chips and other Tech Tools

rick42_98 · June 10, 2009, 01:06:44 PM

I had a crazy idea but this just may work. I have been investigating RFID Chips. These are the little chips, literally the size of an asterisk, which are used by stores, by companies for asset management, shipment tracking etc. I want to glue one to my queen. This way I can locate her easily, determine if she is in the hive at all, and maybe narrow the search down to a particular frame. I am still studying it. I want to find (or build) a cheap scanner etc. The chips themselves are cheap enough (less than a dollar). The key is the scanner. I will let you all know if I can find a cost effective (cheap) way to do this.

ALSO

There are these other devices called HOBO data collectors. They are also relatively cheap (about $30 or so), and small. They can sit in the hive and record things like temperature, humidity, CO2 levels etc. at any interval you want. It can measure these stats every 2 seconds or 2 hours which ever you set it to. The HOBO device then stores this data inside of itself. Every week or couple of weeks you take it out of the hive, hook it into your USB port on your PC and download the data. Now that would make an interesting graph. I am a bit of a tech head so I might get this to work.

My question is, is there any interest out there for this type of stuff? Please let me know. Maybe it's time to use 21st century tools to help us in our beekeeping. Totally noninvasive and benign.

riverrat · June 10, 2009, 01:40:12 PM

It may work but I am going to be a skeptic I believe they will groom it off the queen in a few days

jeremy_c · June 10, 2009, 01:46:48 PM

What is the range, however? I would think that the rfid chip would only get you within 5 frames (probably much more actually) of where the queen is. It's not going to pinpoint a location? It would basically just tell you if your queen is present or not, is my guess.

Jeremy

patook · June 10, 2009, 01:50:00 PM

If you could get/make the scanner cheap enough, you could put one on on each frame. Then you would be able to graph here travel from frame to frame. That could open up many possibilities of learning what attracts her to comb.

Kathyp · June 10, 2009, 01:51:55 PM

please try it. i own stock in the company that makes the chips :-D

utahbeekeeper · June 10, 2009, 01:52:41 PM

I like the idea of HOBO data collectors. Would be fun to download the hive info and take a look at it. Not much interested in messin' with the queen tho.

Bee Happy · June 10, 2009, 02:33:04 PM

Sam's club may have the scanners for USB at a very competitive price.
- that sounds like a great tool for researchers as well - maybe something that scans them on enter/exit with another scan at a feed site - etc. (tracking specific, individual bees in larger numbers than ever.maybe it would answer something like - is a scout in the scout mode until it changes jobs or is a scout only a scout until she's located a serious resource?
I guess the HOBO device would need a cover against propolis - please tell us how it works out if you pursue it.

Robo · June 10, 2009, 02:35:14 PM

I've done some temperature monitoring with 1-wire devices (both hard wired and i-buttons).

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,11721.msg78800.html#msg78800
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,13576.msg96912.html#msg96912

I'm sure there is more if you search

Bee Happy · June 10, 2009, 04:33:38 PM

I just thought of another question that chips like that could probably provide an answer to.
We know bees rob each other. but the question is: (and this could mean a doctorate for someone) Do bees commit espionage? - do they sneak into a hive and spy on scout's resource reports for the purpose of reporting it to their own hive? (as an inexperienced guess I would say "I bet they do.") I know it sounds ridiculous, but consider the complexity of the dance and how specific a communication it is.