

From Instructables user hydronics comes this electronic bee-counter that mounts over a hive’s entrance, dividing it into many channels, each as wide as a single bee, and each equipped with a pair of IR reflectance sensors. When a bee passes through, the order in which the sensors are tripped reveals if it is coming or going. The sensor array is mounted on a custom PCB designed and printed through a local hackerspace, and mounts a Teensy++ for control and USB communication with a laptop, wbere a Processing script uploads the data in real time to Google Drive. Code, circuits, and parts lists at the link, below, or check out the whole project at World Maker Faire this weekend!
Maker Faire Project Profile

Honey Bee Superorganism
The front of a bee hive is chaos… 100s of bees going in and out every few minutes.. I built the first viable Honey Bee Counter to highlight amazing characteristics of this superorganism. This project is part art installation, part technology exhibit, and part biology exhibit. 1) The main art piece will be a large 'stock market ticker' showing a stream of live bee data as well as a live video feed from the bee hive in Portland Oregon. I already have live date (see below).. I'll be working on the ticker sign between now and then and another dorkbotPDX Read more →


As a beekeeper, this is nice!
Pingback: Another bee-counting project « The Science of Heroes
After taking a beekeeping course a few years back and with the onset of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) I had pondered making such a device. Well done for making a reality. I’m sure that many beekeepers and beekeeping evangelists would find this a useful tool.
Well done. Very cool!
Reblogged this on Gigable – Tech Blog.
Excellent!
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