The Apivox Smart Monitor is a universal assistant of the beekeeper, which allows him to receive information about the state of bee colonies without having to visually inspect them throughout the year. For the device, the season of the year is indifferent. For any season and occasion, the device has the appropriate modes that will help the beekeeper to understand in what condition his bees are and what needs to be done with them.
We and the device perceive autumn and winter as a "winter" season. The most important characteristic of this season is the absence of honey collection, even the weakest one. As a rule, at this time, the bees no longer fly out of the hive, even when the sun warms up. Individual bees can fly around, but nothing more. When the calendar winter comes with its cold weather, this season does not raise questions.
In winter season, the main mode that the beekeeper uses - is the General State Control mode. In this mode, the device will tell you if the bee colony is overwintering normally, or if there is excitement, indicating that it is disturbed from the outside, or it runs out of food. If so, then the beekeeper can take action. As a rule, at this time there are mainly two types of work in the colony - active heating of bees' cluster and extraction and redistribution of honey among the bees of the colony. Thus, if everything is in good order in the family of bees, then during the diagnostics we will see the highest bars on the diagram corresponding to these particular works. Sometimes there is also slight ventilation.
It is best to carry out the control both in summer and in winter from the top of the frames covered with canvas. This type of control gives the best result, since the cluster of bees in winter is located closer to the top of the frames than to the entrance. Audibility through the canvas is good, and the smartphone can simply be placed under a warming pillow. We make a pillow with a rigid frame and for ease of control we make an incision in its upper cover. This allows to install the smartphone with the microphone down without even touching the pillow.
In winter, a weakening of the colony may occur due to the death of some of the bees. The bees' cluster becomes small and the usual active heating is not enough for it for a normal existence. In this case, the bees start an emergency heating of cluster. If the beekeeper sees such diagnostics of the device, then he must understand that changes have occurred in the family that can lead to her death. We observed such signals in colonies heavily affected by Varroa mites, where, due to the large death of young bees at the end of summer, bees mostly of older ages left for the winter, which are not able to survive the winter. Thus, the emergency heating signal in this case should be taken as a “distress signal” for the family. The same signal and the corresponding diagnostics of the device can be observed if for some reason you opened the hive in winter. For example, if you put food on the frames during a severe frost. This is not fatal for the bees, but they usually use emergency heating to quickly restore the temperature balance in their cluster.
The second mode, which is used both at the beginning of the winter season and at its end - that is, in early spring, is the Brood Control mode. This mode allows you to check the presence of open brood in the family of bees, which is quite important to know at the end of queen egg-laying in autumn, and at the beginning of egg-laying in spring. In the fall, such knowledge will allow to understand, that the family is ready for additional treatment from Varroa mites, and to understand that the family has switched to an economical winter regime of its existence. The beginning of brood rearing in winter - in February, March, is a rather bad sign. This allows Varroa mites to breed in secret and build up strength in anticipation of spring. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that it will be possible to remove the brood in winter, but it is necessary to keep this circumstance in mind when carrying out anti-varroa treatment in the spring. Families that start early brood rearing will have a much higher percentage of mites by April than the rest.
Thus, the use of the Apivox Smart Monitor in winter is not less important than in summer. The diagnostics provided by the device allows a much better understanding of the state of wintering bees without opening the hive and without disturbing their peace.
Moreover, as always, the information obtained with the help of the device cannot be obtained by the beekeeper in any other way.
You can always buy the Apivox Smart Monitor app on our website - apivox-smart-monitor.weebly.com
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