Thermal Imaging

Beekeepers tend to spend the winter months making up new hives and frames and preparing for the following season, having decided not to add more colonies and hives to the area just yet (more on that later) and already having the flow frames and boxes all ready and waiting, I therefore started to look into other bee related stuff, I follow a couple of beekeepers from america on YouTube, and they were using a gadget that fitted onto a mobile phone and did thermal Imaging, used mainly for locating bee colonies within walls,roof voids etc.

then one of my Facebook beekeeping friends ordered one via amazon, so I waited for him to get and use his, and saw the results, I was so Impressed I too ordered one straight away.

It arrived a couple of days ago, and like all boys and their toys, I've been testing it on a few different hives, I started of course with the two in the secret bee garden

being able to see heat within the hive, not only assures us that the bees are still alive, but if pictures are taken over a period of days, we could gauge if the colony is moving around the hive feeding on stores, or even if they are dwindling and need a fondant feed adding.

I then took it over our club out apiary, and checked all the hives there too

and here's a few thermal pictures

my reason against adding the woodland colonies to the secret garden are simple, every year bees swarm, and therefore my two hives will probably follow suit, I'd rather have the space to make up artificial swarms, and then add a third or forth hive,