1. SolutionBee

HM-6 Hive Monitor with Wi-Fi: The PerfectBee Company offers a device that measures and stores weight and temperature readings of the beehive every hour. These readings are uploaded automatically over Wi-Fi. Since information about the beehive is uploaded to the internet, the beekeeper can save the time and effort of walking to check up on the beehive. This device is compatible with the Solution HiveHub™; therefore, locations without Wi-Fi are still able to use this device. The battery in the device is expected to last for three years; however, it can last longer due to the low power requirements of NFC.

This competitor appears to be the latest and most similar product to our design idea. Our design is similar in the following ways: scale is placed directly under the beehive and uploads data over WiFi. This product is available for purchase and has several reviews from users. The website has some quotations from a few customers. Customer 1 says, “I am having great fun with this, watching my bee’s growth graph going ever upward in weight gain. For the first time I am also having to learn how to use a cell phone – my son’s iPhone- as the data recording and uploading device.” Customer 2 says, “Overall, this is an incredible product, and I can see how it will make me a more informed beekeeper year-round. Time will tell longevity of the electronics/battery but from the looks of construction I feel confident. Thanks for developing a solid product!” Customer 3 states, “A great tool for managing my bees. The scale serves as an indicator for supering my hives. I also know when the nectar flow has ended which means it’s time to extract honey. While at work one day, my hive sward, which I discovered when I downloaded the data that afternoon after work. I found the swarm and was able to capture it. Without the scale, it would have been the weekend before I learned the hive had swarmed. By that time, the swarm would be long gone. The swarm grew into a strong hive that I was able to get honey from. The value of the swarm and the honey I sold from the swarm covered part of the scale’s cost. I was not expecting such a quick return on my investment.” Customer 4 states, “Good job I would like to know where I can buy the scale. Also, do you need apple iPhone to purchase the service and the thermo camera that comes with the system. I am a beekeeper for more than 15 years. I know the scale exists for more than five years, but the price was too high for me. Thanks for the info.”  

Based off the first three reviews, the customers appear to be very content with the product. Although none of the products state any negative comments their statements can help us consider new aspects of our product. A major goal of our product is to encourage new individuals to become interest in beekeeping. Since we want to encourage individuals of all ages, we must consider the easy-to-use aspect of our product. Customer 1 mentions how they are learning to use a phone for the first time; therefore, this should help us consider the possible age of our customers. Since we may have an older generation who is not as comfortable with the use of phone applications and technology, we need to consider having an easy-to-use application. Customer 4 praised the product but mentioned the high price tag. Noteworthy, customer 4 mentioned how he was a beekeeper of more than 15 years. Although our product is targeted for people who are considering joining beekeeping, this emphasizes the need for an affordable price tag. Further, people who are considering joining beekeeping may be discouraged from a high price tag. The current price tag for this product from SolutionBee is $319.00.

2. Weight my Bees: Measuring Beehive Weight to Monitor Colony Health

This competitive product is not available for sale. This is a research concepts that seeks to help scientists and beekeepers study the effects of the Colony Collapse Disorder. This concept is a remote beehive weigh measuring system that is built with NI myRIO 1900, myRIO LabVIEW 2017 Software Bundle, 2x50kg 3-wire load cell, protective pressed metal casing for load cells, HX711 programmable gain amplifier (PGA), EPCOS B57164K103J thermistor, and 10k Ohm 2% tolerance resistor. The design of the scale is designed to rest underneath the hive and produce real time results.

The students involved in this research explained the need to actively compensate the load cells in order to get accurate weight readings. From this competitive product, we learned that temperature is one of the factors that affects weight measurements. Therefore, we may need to take similar steps. The students discuss of possible revisions that could be made in their design. One revision stated how the recorded changes in hive weight provided limited information about the overall behavioral pattern of bees; therefore, they suggest the addition of temperature, humidity, and sound recordings inside of the hive. Although our product will not be involved directly with the bees, this suggest can help us consider other ways we may need to understand the bees with our design.

3. BeeWeigh

The BeeWeigh is a project that was started to develop an inexpensive, lightweight, and easily mobile device to weigh your beehive without lifting or disassembling the hive. It uses simple scientific principles of leverage to reduce the amount of effort needed to weigh your hive. The BeeWeigh is simply a product one must build and calibrate on their own.

The premise of this product is that it is a device to weigh bees that is light-weight, portable, collapsible, accurate, and most importantly inexpensive. However, these claims are a bit of a stretch taking into consideration that this “product” is not really a product at all. The BeeWeigh is simply a concept that was made available to the public so that anyone interested in weighing their bees can build, calibrate, and utilize this design. What we offer is a ready to use, physical product that can be placed underneath any existing hive. This takes away any extraneous variables that occur when crafting a DIY product such as errors in the dimensions of the build, or mishandling during measurement, and even in the calculations that must be done to acquire the hives weight while using this device. Other drawbacks include the requirement of woodworking skills and mathematics to build and use the product. It is safe to assume that not everyone is skilled in woodwork or that math is everyone’s strongest subject. Thus, the requirement of these skills greatly limits the people willing to give this design a try. The main goal of our product is to impress and impel new people to become amateur beekeepers. We can do this by making our product as user friendly as possible – meaning no specific skill set is required to operate the device – and by offering it at a low/affordable price.