Stick scales

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As Stock scale , beehive scale or bees scale in is beekeeping beings and beekeeping a weighing device referred to, with which the weight changes of a bee colony can be determined and monitored. It consists of a most special scale to which a single hive , called Waagstock , is placed. The term Waagstock is partly synonymous for the entire bee used -Wägevorrichtung along with scales, beehive and etwaigem protection house.

While analog (mechanical) stick scales were previously used, digital (electronic) stick scales are increasingly being used today. Electronic hive scales enable  very detailed forage monitoring and remote monitoring of bee colonies using special measurement technology and remote data transmission  - especially with automated recording of other factors such as hive temperature and location-related weather observation . This partly so-called costume monitoring can now also be accessed for many locations on the web .

background

Weight control is considered the "[best] method for non-invasive assessment" of the condition of a bee colony. Both with its upward development in spring due to the early harvest and with the consumption of winter forage, the increase and decrease in the hive weight can be used to forecast pending work, such as an early honey harvest .

History and construction methods

Historical beehive scales with protective shelters / " Waagstock " in Leopold Gombocz's large apiary in Laafeld near Radkersburg, Styria (1909)

In the past, mechanical scales were mostly used for stick scales , mostly a commercially available beam scales in the form of a flat table-running weight scale with the weighing device on the narrow side. Such scales were mostly made of oak or metal. The wing was kept so large that it offered a good support for the prey placed on it and could not tilt it. Stick scales were mostly designed for a "load capacity of 100 to 150  kg with 50  g smallest unit". The scales together with the “scales”, which were equipped with a colony of bees, were usually set up individually in a special shelter, whereby the prey then had to be double-walled. Often such protection houses were relatively easily built and equipped with removable roof so that the Waagstock hiked could be and the beekeepers got such a "detailed overview of the productivity of the dress at walking place". The measurement results from floor scales had to be regularly read locally in order to obtain usable data.

In recent times, simple but fully functional floor scales have often been made from commercially available personal scales that have been built into a wooden frame and provided with two adjustable mirrors for reading "from the outside". These scales, which are usually suitable for all hives up to around 125 kg, were often made by beekeepers or hobby beekeepers themselves, but are also available in stores.

Electronic scales have been used increasingly since the mid-1990s , now often in combination with mobile communications and the Internet . Since the beginning / mid-2000s, a few manufacturers of scales and measuring technology from Germany have been able to establish themselves on the beekeeping market , each offering specially developed but similar electronic hive scales and weighing systems. Such hive scales consist of a corrosion-protected metal construction on which a beehive - consisting of a magazine hive with usually two frames and including a beehive - is placed, as well as special measuring technology equipped with sensors and optionally remote data transmission technology.

Modern electronic stick scales and weighing systems enable continuous data acquisition and evaluation, in particular a detailed forage observation with visualization , weather observation and "real measured values" for a stand selection as well as the extraction of variety honeys (forage phases). This so-called costume monitoring provides decision-making aids for bee migration . The data, such as the weight of the beehive (scale weight), date and time information, optionally also outside temperature, inside temperature in the beehive, humidity and amount of precipitation, are transmitted live via the web, SMS or voice output . Special mobile radio terminals such as GSM boxes can record the data from several scales and the optional sensors of a weather station and / or a precipitation meter within a radius of about 100  m by registering the date and time, save it permanently and transmit it via the GSM mobile network.

There are now numerous do-it-yourself versions of electronic floor scales. One example of this is the HoneyPi open source project. HoneyPi is based on the Raspberry Pi , a small mini computer. These modern stick scales follow a typical Internet of Things structure and use the typical tools. One example of this is ThingSpeak, a service that is used to store measurement data. The system is being actively developed by an open source community. In addition to the firmware , this includes, for example, the iOS and Android app. The apps for visualizing the measurement data are partially compatible with other measurement systems. This allows beekeepers to check their bee colonies on their smartphone at any time from other hive scales projects.

Measurement data / costume monitoring on the Internet

General development

Since the end of the 2000s / beginning of the 2010s, the measurement data from selected or specially set up, mostly electronic beehive scales have increasingly been available on the Internet. Such web offers have been and are mainly set up and operated by institutions related to beekeeping and beekeeping or beekeeping associations, but also by individual beekeepers, hobby beekeepers and manufacturers of hive scales. The costume monitoring of selected locations via the Internet, which is partly only accessible to affiliated members, but is often also freely accessible to the public, is becoming increasingly important.

Examples in Germany

In Germany , bee colonies are monitored nationwide in the TrachtNet project of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the data from the scales is constantly evaluated. The project is supervised by the Rhineland-Palatinate specialist center for bees and beekeeping in the city of Mayen , which is part of the Westerwald-Eastern Eifel Rural Service Center . Connected "Trachtnet scales" of the project can now also be found in the following federal states: Bavaria , Hesse , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia . The costume monitoring can be called up online for each location in the form of graphics or tables .

GSM modem (on the post) and electronic stick scales (under the left beehive), on the roof garden of the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn (2013)

On the roof garden of the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn , where a dozen colonies of bees have been kept since 2011, one of the beehives was equipped with an electronic hive scale. The data measured there on the weather and the increase and decrease in the population are automatically sent daily by SMS to the server of the scale manufacturer and made available to the currently around 120 beekeepers in the Bonn area and other interested parties on a public website.

At the club level, for example, the Berlin beekeeping association Lichtenrade e. V. continuously makes "observation and balance reports" publicly available on its website. These reports come from a location in Berlin- Lichtenrade , where a mechanical table-top sliding weight scale is used and, in addition to the weight changes of the scales, also the precipitation is recorded, as well as from a scale in Berlin- Tempelhof , where an electronic stick scale is used.

Also in Berlin, the editorial staff of the German Bee Journal , which has kept several bee colonies on the roof terrace of the publishing house in Berlin- Wilmersdorf since 2009 , has been using a weighing stick with an electronic stick scale since 2011. The forage observation measurement data of the "publishing bees" are made freely available on the Internet.

In the Swabian region , a community of beekeepers and beekeeping associations has come together under the name Stockwaagen Schwaben , which operate several electronic stick scales in their region and make the measured data available to all members of the beekeeping and beekeeping associations affiliated to the LVBI on the Internet.

Examples in Austria

In Austria , an electronic floor scale with remote data transmission was developed in 2007 as part of a diploma thesis at the University of Applied Sciences Campus 02 in Graz , using commercially available modules and systems. The development was tested in practice at a large apiary in Carinthia . The basic equipment consists of a programmable control device (type logo ) and a transducer and a GSM - modem with an antenna. If the measured value deviates for a longer period of time, the control system automatically sends an SMS to the beekeeper's mobile phone via a GSM modem .

Subsequently, at the beginning of the 2010s at the Institute for Automation Technology at the Graz University of Applied Sciences Campus 02, as part of an R&D project, a prototype for an automatic electronic bee scale was constructed using specially developed measurement and evaluation technology. The sensor network system funded by the Styrian Chamber of Commerce is currently being tested by various beekeepers in Styria and is being further developed for series production at FH Campus 02.

2013/2014 was the Austrian province of Tyrol as part of a study on the impact of the use of pesticides in fruit crops in the Landeck district conducted a "bee monitoring". For the surveys, the participating beekeeping school at the Agricultural State College in Imst used several electronic hive scales in order to register changes in the weight of the bee colonies and to record the basics for assessing the health status and development of the colonies.

Examples in Switzerland

In Switzerland , the Association of German- Swiss and Rhaeto-Romanic Bee Friends (VDRB) installed electronic and fully automatic scales at various locations, which enable timely monitoring of the respective foraging conditions and the local weather. The measurement results are updated daily and transmitted to a central server, which makes the data publicly available on the Internet.

literature

  • Uwe Hubbe: The balance. In: Deutsches Bienen-Journal , section Imkerpraxis , issue No. 03/2010, ISSN  0943-2914 , pp. 6-8.
  • Rudolph Jacoby: The Beekeeping ABC. Beekeeping Lexicon. 2nd, expanded edition. Publishing Beekeeping, Bad Segeberg in Holstein in 1964, DNB 452 159 377 , p 290, 723-724 (for keyword level ) and S. 316, 677, 723 (for keyword Waagstock ).
  • Paul Wolfgang Philipp: The balance stick and its auxiliary devices. Fritz Pfenningstorff, Berlin 1936.

Web links

Commons : stick scales  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See information on the earlier information page Am Waagstock ( memento from January 24, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) on the website of the Annaberg Beekeeping Association in Annaberg-Buchholz ; Web archive version accessed December 14, 2014.
  2. ↑ Karl-Heinz Vanicek: Apiary expertise. VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag (DLV), Berlin 1966, DNB 457054344 , p. 383.
  3. ↑ See product descriptions of standard floor scales based on personal scales.
  4. ↑ See beekeeping technology: manufacturer and distributor of beekeeping supplies and technology ( Memento of February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) - market overview (here on stick scales ) on the website of a beekeeping in Berlin (www.imkerei.vonorlow.de); accessed on January 24, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b See manufacturer's information for commercially available electronic stacker scales and data acquisition systems.
  6. ↑ HoneyPi - The smart beehive scale. Retrieved on February 16, 2019 (German).
  7. ↑ Javan: Visualize and evaluate measurement data - HoneyPi. Retrieved on February 16, 2019 (German).
  8. ↑ HoneyPi iOS App - HoneyPi. Retrieved on February 16, 2019 (German).
  9. ↑ See menu item Trachtnet and Trachtnet balance locations . In each case on: Website of the specialist center for bees and beekeeping Mayen at the Rhineland-Palatinate service center for the rural area of ​​the Westerwald-Eastern Eifel ; each accessed on January 24, 2014.
  10. ↑ See the first electronic beehive scale in Bonn . In: Blog Honey House's blog about the bees on the roof garden of the Bundeskunsthalle (bundesbienen.info); as well as: The federal  bees on the roof garden of the Bundeskunsthalle - data from the beehive scale on the roof of the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn (on: direct.capaz.de); each accessed on January 24, 2014.
  11. ↑ See observation and balance reports ( Memento from December 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). On: website of the beekeeping association Lichtenrade e. V. , Berlin (observation reports available for download as PDF files); accessed on December 14, 2014.
  12. ↑ See The Publishing Bees >>  The Balance Stock . On: Website of the German Bee Journal , Berlin; accessed on December 14, 2014.
  13. ↑ See the homepage of Stockwaagen Schwaben . On: Website www.biewa.de, published by: AllDeG, Immenstaad; accessed on January 24, 2014.
  14. ↑ See diploma theses in 2007 on campus 02. FH degree course in automation technology, born in 2003 >> Johannes Tropper: “Bee scales with remote display to increase performance in modern beekeeping” ( Memento from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Technical Report issue 1/2007, published by the Fachhochschule Campus 02 , Graz, p. 43; PDF, 2,176 kB; accessed on December 14, 2014.
  15. ↑ See article: News from the beehive. Electronic bee scales with LOGO! and GSM modem . In: GO! Trade magazine for automating with LOGO! and SIMATIC S7-1200 from Siemens AG , edition 2/2007; accessed on January 24, 2014.
  16. ↑ See article Electronic Guardians in the Bee State. The beekeepers are informed about data from the beehives ( memento from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Newsletter 02 Inside , Edt. 1, April 2010, published by the University of Applied Sciences Campus 02 , Graz, p. 5; PDF, 1,983 kB; accessed on December 14, 2014.
  17. ↑ See: Sonja Saurugger: Bees under the strictest guard ( Memento from September 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). In: Kleine Zeitung of April 17, 2013.
  18. ↑ See Activity Report 2013/14 (excerpt) >>  Bee monitoring in Grins . On: Website of the beekeeping school at the Agricultural State College Imst , Imst (Tyrol / Austria); accessed on December 15, 2014.
  19. ↑ See Waagvölker >>  Online including weather observations . On: Website of the Association of German- Swiss and Rhaeto-Romanic Bee Friends (VDRB), www.vdrb.ch; accessed on January 24, 2014.