Live video from inside our bee hive.

GarlyDog · May 18, 2008, 09:11:13 PM

http://www.sugarcreekorchard.com

This is my first attempt at an Internet-enabled observation hive and my first hive in general.

HiveCam hive is a Kenyan Top Bar Hive. The video is shot in infrared light. Sometimes on bright days, you can see the bees in color with ambient light from the entrance holes.

So far the bees have built 14 amazingly perfect combs and the first brood should arrive soon.

Also check out the time-lapse video of 1 week compressed into 6 minutes too.

Enjoy.

JP · May 19, 2008, 01:23:17 AM

Here is some honest feed back, I watched over a minute of the hive entrance and bird nest entrance videos and the screen was black and I became bored and turned them off. The time elapsed video I found monotonous and turned it off after a few minutes. Just thought I would give you some kind of feedback as 37 other people at this point have stopped in and no-one has commented.

Hope I didn't offend you. I see the potential here though for something really interesting. Perhaps color and sound would make the experience more worthwhile. Just my .02

...JP

GarlyDog · May 19, 2008, 10:12:19 AM

I am not offended. Thank you for your suggestions.

1. Try looking at it during the daylight. HiveCam is located in the Central Time Zone. The entrance is not lighted at night so the bees aren't disturbed, hence the dark screen. Based on your response, I will add a note if the screen is dark to check back during daylight US Central Standard Time. GMT -6.

2. Hivecam is shot in infrared light, hence Black and White. The cameras are capable of capturing color, which you can see on the raw video footage from the time-lapse at sunrise.

White light, which allows color, disturbed/confused the bees and added too much extra heat to the hive using my current design. It also attracted other insects from outside the hive as light was shining out through the entrance holes.

Color really doesn't add anything as far as observing behavior is concerned so I deemed it unneccesssary. I am trying to keep hivecam's impact on the bees to an absolute minimum to allow it to operate 24x7x365.

But for the MTV / Reality TV generation, I can understand the disappointment... If I could figure out a low-impact design that would allow color, I would give it a try. I don't see how it is possible without flooding the combs with white light 24x7, which I believe is a bad idea. Any suggestions?

Infrared can work 24x7x365 with minimal hive impact.

You may have also noticed the links at the bottom of the main page which are password protected. I can turn on a white lights in the hive and at the entrance if I want. ;) You will need to make your own hivecam for that :-D

3. Regarding sound, I tried it. There is too much other ambient noise near the hive that drowns out the bee humming. It would be neat. I agree.

4. Regarding the time-lapse video. A more detail-oriented observer looking at the raw footage (a link on the video page), not the tiny Internet preview, would have noticed all sorts of facinating bee behavior.

a. the bees are making chains to set up scaffolding to build comb.
b. you can track the sun across the sky as the cluster moves with change in hot spot in the hive.
c. you can see the bees explode out of the hive in the morning when it is time to work, and return in mass when the day is done.
d. You can see how the cluster reacts to temperature changes thoughout the evenings..
e. Should I go on?

Daddys Girl · May 19, 2008, 02:55:07 PM

I admit that the entrance cam is pretty dull viewing, because there isn't much activity there this early in the year. I am sure that it will be more interesting later on, as the brood grows and the nectar flows get going.

The hive cam is really neat. I don't need color to be happy or interested, and in fact as my kids are doing schoolwork related to bees, the hive cam in the KTBH actually helps them understand what is going on in the one we have in our apiary. :)

The only complaint that I have is that the stream isn't that great to me, but that may well have nothing to do with your hive cam. :)

Janemma · May 19, 2008, 03:02:50 PM

I thought the time lapse video was really cool. But then I'm a first year beekeeper and a little bee obsessed atm. I sent the link to a few a people. It's a little more real to show THAT to my children than 'BEE Movie' ;) I'm sure my Son still thinks Adam and Barry are in there somewhere stirring up the honey :roll: so having a hive cam online to show them what bees are really up to in there when we aren't looking is kind of cool.

Thanks!

GarlyDog · May 19, 2008, 06:54:32 PM

Quote from: Daddys Girl on May 19, 2008, 02:55:07 PM
I admit that the entrance cam is pretty dull viewing, because there isn't much activity there this early in the year. I am sure that it will be more interesting later on, as the brood grows and the nectar flows get going.

The only complaint that I have is that the stream isn't that great to me, but that may well have nothing to do with your hive cam. :)

It has been a little colder than the bees like the last few days. Not much flying going on. When it gets above 80 degrees, the entrance gets interesting, more like this:

I have recently noticed a problem with the video speed too. I am working on it. I am trying to find an additional webcam hosting service. The current service in use is located in England. I need to find a second service located in the US for US viewers. I think that will fix the problem. Right now, if you are a US viewer, the image has to cross the Atlantic Ocean twice before it gets to you. Unless you are me. :)

I am also researching an upgrade for the internal hive camera with the ability to zoom, pan/tilt, auto-focus, etc. I may make another attempt at sound too. I have an idea that might work better than my first attempt...

Tucker1 · May 19, 2008, 08:31:47 PM

Nice looking dog.

Regards,
Tucker1

JP · May 20, 2008, 12:57:15 AM

Garly Dog, I'm very impressed with your thoroughness!! Its obvious that you have spent a lot of time on your set up.

Keep up the good work!
;)

...JP

Rex · May 20, 2008, 02:14:06 PM

This is a great idea and pretty interesting to watch and see the different style of hive. I thought the time lapse video was the best part.

GarlyDog · May 20, 2008, 07:47:29 PM

Quote from: Rex on May 20, 2008, 02:14:06 PM
I thought the time lapse video was the best part.

Me too.

GarlyDog · May 20, 2008, 11:32:51 PM

I worked with the knowledgeable tech support staff at http://www.camstreams.com, a nifty free webcam broadcasting service that makes HiveCam possible, to improve the resolution on HiveCam broadcast from 320x240 to 640x480.

You can see the bees more clearly now on the webpage broadcast. This is very close to the image I get locally from the cameras.

I think we have improved the video stream speed and reliability too. So far it seems to be working better.

Image focus is still an on-going issue. It seems that I have to adjust the focus about every other day on the internal hive cam as the bees build new comb.

I tried a new Panasonic auto-focus camera in HiveCam last night as a potential upgrade. It was a complete failure. Auto-focus does not work so well close up in the hive with the bees. Rats!