IR imaging

[gavin]

Here's another thread for a 'Technology' section when I finally get around to a forum rearrangement discussed behind the scenes before Christmas. I'm rather busy at the moment.

An article in Bee Culture by Jerry Bromenshenk on using IR to assess colonies.

http://www.beeculture.com/infrared-the-next-generation-in-colony-management/


http://www.beeculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/1CameraFinal.jpg

[The Drone Ranger]

Remember the kids song

"Row,row,row,your boat gently down the stream ...."

That's the backdrop as a read, read, read, my way gently through the page

Then the price got a mention

"If you see a crocodile don't forget to scream"

"AggggggHhhhh!!! how much" ?

Good article though :)

[fatshark]

You can either add an IR filter or modify a digital SLR to take IR photos (by taking _out_ the filter that usually cuts out IR). The former is easier and much cheaper (about £30 for a filter) but I've no idea whether it's sensitive enough to get the sort of information shown in the pic posted by Gavin.

There think there was a comment on the BKF recently about using a handheld IR thermometer pointed at the crownboard to determine whether the queen was laying (or the colony was brooding, can't remember which) during winter inspections. I seem to remember that 16oC was mentioned but can't remember where I saw it (probably on a "should I treat with OA now thread").

[gavin]

There think there was a comment on the BKF recently about using a handheld IR thermometer pointed at the crownboard to determine whether the queen was laying (or the colony was brooding, can't remember which) during winter inspections.

On the what?!!

:)

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/showthread.php?2144-Winter-bee-watching&p=33685&viewfull=1#post33685

[fatshark]

2525

Humble apologies ...

That explains why any amount of searching failed to find the post I was referring to.

My brain is waterlogged, like my apiary ...

2524

[gavin]

:)

And now the rain is back on .... all my apiaries are out of traditional flooding areas but one has a lot of standing water around the hives and another can't be reached when a burn is in spate, as it has been for a while now. Had to feel for the sheep farmer on the radio yesterday describing watching his sheep getting washed away one by one.

Anyway, IR. I'd be surprised if filters were enough to get anything like the images shown but the technology (IR cameras) have come down a lot in price and will probably continue to do so.

[The Drone Ranger]

Opportunity to show Amm are better swimmers :)

[fatshark]

Here's something to keep you entertained whilst we all evolve webbed feet ...

I've been reading some stuff from Gene Robinson (Uni. Illinois) about tagging and counting bee activity. The paper's unfortunately not 'free to air' but the relevant bit is here, directly culled from Tenczar et al., Automated monitoring reveals extreme interindividual variation and plasticity in honeybee foraging activity levels. Animal Behaviour 95:41-48.

========

Methods
Monitoring Technology

Bees were tagged with laser light-activated ‘p-chip’ microtransponders (tags) (PharmaSeq, Princeton, NJ, U.S.A.). The tags were detected by laser readers (PharmaSeq) connected via a USB cable to a computer. Each tag carried a unique identification number; the tag's upper surface contains photocells that, when lit by a reader's red laser beam, activate the chip to transmit its ID for a distance of up to 10 mm to a pickup coil in the head of the reader. Processing and decoding of the ID were performed with firmware and p-Chip Reader software provided by PharmaSeq.

Because of the small 1.5 mm diameter of the laser beam, two tags were attached to a bee to increase the likelihood of detection (Fig. 1). Each tag was 500 × 500 × 100 μm with a weight of 90 μg; two tags fit easily on the thorax of the bee, and their combined weight was only 0.56% of the average load carried by a nectar forager (Winston, 1987). This means that it is unlikely that the presence of the tags impaired natural foraging behaviour.

Figure 1 Typical positioning of two PharmaSeq p-chip microtransponders on the thorax of an adult worker honeybee.

2526

To read tagged bees, a 10 × 10 mm plastic tube walkway was attached to the hive entrance, with two laser readers projecting into the top of the tube (Fig. 2). Bees passed sequentially under each reader as they entered and exited the hive, so that the order of detection by each reader could be used to infer the direction of travel. The top and sides of the walkway were coated with Fluon (Bioquip Products, Rancho Dominguez, CA, U.S.A.) while the floor of the walkway had numerous small drilled holes to provide grip; this encouraged most bees to walk on the floor of the walkway, maximizing the probability that their tags would be detected. Upon detecting a passing bee, the reader passed the detected ID and reader number to an attached PC, where a time stamp was associated.

Figure 2 Recording apparatus attached to the front of a six-frame nucleus hive. Bees leave the hive through a 90° entrance elbow (E), then pass through a 10 mm square walkway (W) exiting to the outside at the funnel (F). Outer (OR) and inner (IR) readers record bees passing in the walkway underneath. A ventilated Plexiglas cover fits over the apparatus for rain protection.

2528


Tagging Procedure

Bees were tagged when they were 6–24 h old. Each bee was anaesthetized on ice and kept on a container of shaved ice covered with aluminium foil. A vacuum pickup tool (Hakko Model 394 with 0.26 nozzle, Osaka, Japan) was used to select and manipulate upright two tags into a small dish. The tags' serial numbers were read and recorded. A small dollop of Loctite Super Glue Gel Control (Henkel, Düsseldorf, Germany) was applied to the bee's thorax. Tags were picked up with the vacuum tool, a slightly wet toothpick, or a pair of microdissection forceps and positioned on the bee's thorax. The bee was then placed in a cradle to stay upright for the minute or so required for glue drying and recovery. The entire tagging process for a single bee lasted 3–5 min.

========

Some interesting procedures there for making sure the bees followed a particular path in and out of the hive (a nuc). They were tagging 100-500 bees at a time. There's lots of additional interesting stuff in the paper on inferring detection rates, direction of travel etc. Detection rates were surprisingly low 30-50% if they limited them to bees going past the inner then outer (40 seconds or more) outer then inner detector, but were higher if they didn't require every detector to register for every trip.

I can't post the paper but do have a copy if I need to refer to it again.

How long do you think you could run a couple of those lasers from a 3.7V battery?? ;)

[The Drone Ranger]

You know what Fatshark ,
It does show the difficulty involved in trying to automate bee tracking / counting
Temperature and humidity etc are a breeze but not queen tracking it would seem

Now I've seen your DIY and smart ideas on your website, so there's a challenge for you
How could you record a queen leaving a mating nuc and returning
Without making her a target for predators :)

[Greengage]

Ah so It is Fatshark who shows up in my inbox, I follow his/her blog didnt know it was you who wrote "I hate those meeces to pieces"

[madasafish]

You can either add an IR filter or modify a digital SLR to take IR photos (by taking _out_ the filter that usually cuts out IR). The former is easier and much cheaper (about £30 for a filter) but I've no idea whether it's sensitive enough to get the sort of information shown in the pic posted by Gavin.

There think there was a comment on the BKF recently about using a handheld IR thermometer pointed at the crownboard to determine whether the queen was laying (or the colony was brooding, can't remember which) during winter inspections. I seem to remember that 16oC was mentioned but can't remember where I saw it (probably on a "should I treat with OA now thread").

That was me. 16C.

[Greengage]

I have one of these and while aplying Apibioxal yesterday (It stopped raining at last for a few hours) Measure the temp of the colony one was 4 degrees one was 6 degrees and one was 14 degrees why the big differance I wonder maybe because the last one had more bees, i dont know??
http://buy4less.co.za/shop/infrared-thermometer-with-laser-targeting-non-contact-free-shipping/

[madasafish]

I have one of these and while aplying Apibioxal yesterday (It stopped raining at last for a few hours) Measure the temp of the colony one was 4 degrees one was 6 degrees and one was 14 degrees why the big differance I wonder maybe because the last one had more bees, i dont know??
http://buy4less.co.za/shop/infrared-thermometer-with-laser-targeting-non-contact-free-shipping/

A lot depends on the heat loss. ALL my hives have at least 100mm of roof insulation - and hive cosies (except the poly one which has only a tophat cover to prevent condensation round teh roof seams.) - and I measure the temperature on the crownboard immediately after removing the insulation. The exeternal temperature ambient was c10C at the time..