Welcome To BeeHacker.Com

This site explores the confluence of beekeeping and technology. It is targeted at the amateur and professional:

  • beekeeper or bee lover
  • scientist, engineer, inventor, DIYer

The primary goal is to develop new, Open Source technologies that can benefit the honey bee and everyone else that benefits from the honey bee. Continue reading Welcome To BeeHacker.Com

Review of ‘The Queen Must Die’

The_Queen_Must_Die by William Longgood

The_Queen_Must_Die by William Longgood

Have you ever read a book, thoroughly enjoyed it, and wondered why everyone didn’t enjoy it as much as you.  Reading a book is a mostly creative process – the dry words of printed books are like mallets on the chimes of our experience.  That is what makes reading such a personal experience. For too many people, all books sound tinny.  For experienced beekeepers, The Queen Must Die resonates long and harmoniously. Continue reading Review of ‘The Queen Must Die’

2011 Beekeeping Mea Culpas

One of the bloggers I admire most is Linda Tilman of  Linda’s Bees – not so much because she is a Master Bee Keeper – which she is – but because she is self-confident enough to share her own failures as well as her successes on her blog pages. That is what makes her . . . → Read More: 2011 Beekeeping Mea Culpas

Harvard’s RoboBee Project

Robobee

Robobee

You may remember about one year ago, I posted a video of robotic flying  multicopters building a structure. I was so intrigued that I have built my own robotic quadcopter based on the Arducopter design with the intent of engineering a true autonomous swarm.  But more on that at a future date.  Here is RoboBees (click here) - a research project at Harvard seeking to develop mechanical structures that fly – inspired by bees and enabled by microelectronic fabrication technology. The mechanical device shown is the size of a penny but the MEMS technology could be used to build something  much smaller. The video below shows the result of the manufacturing process but they also have videos of this thing flying and are working on an optical sensor and swarm behaviors.

Video after the jump… Continue reading Harvard’s RoboBee Project

Entomologist: Meet Etymologist

I am pleased to report that ‘beehacker’ has been entered into the lexicon of popular culture. WordSpy, “the word lover’s guide to new words”, has identified an emerging new meme: beehacker. A beehacker has been defined as

n. A beekeeper who uses digital tools and technology to help monitor and manage a . . . → Read More: Entomologist: Meet Etymologist

Harvest Time!

We harvested about 130 lbs of honey two weeks ago.  According to my hive scale, hives #1,2, & 3 contributed 58, 38.5, and 36.5 lbs. Not bad considering that #2 was queenless for several weeks this Spring! Check out the Apiary Timeline and click on the events leading up to the harvest for more . . . → Read More: Harvest Time!

Dear NPR: Please do not criminalize hackers

This is in response to Robert Siegel’s June 20th feature “Going After ‘Hackavists’”.

I am one of those people who likes to “tinker or modify hardware or software”. I “support free speech”, and I am grateful for the transparency that WikiLeaks provided – the details of which NPR enthusiastically reported. I enjoy “entertainment” and I fear that the weak link in our nation’s security is our cyber security.

According to your interview on June 20th with Hugh Thompson, I must be a hacker. Continue reading Dear NPR: Please do not criminalize hackers

A Drone Learns About the Birds and Bees

Xtranormal.com is a website that lets you create your own movie from text. I created this short adult educational movie about bee sex to illustrate how different (and hopefully interesting) bee sex is from human sex.

. . . → Read More: A Drone Learns About the Birds and Bees

Egg Laying Workers: Death Spiral Interrupted

Beekeepers lose hives all the time.  It is a fact of life for beekeeping – perhaps more so today than ever before.  Not everyone can afford to take extraordinary measures to preserve a hive in a death spiral.  But extraordinary measures provide plenty of opportunities for learning opportunities. This is the story of what I learned from saving a hive with egg laying workers.


Continue reading Egg Laying Workers: Death Spiral Interrupted

IEEE Spectrum features BeeHacker.com

May 2011 Issue of IEEE Spectrum

The flagship magazine of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE Spectrum, has featured an article on BeeHacker.com written by Paul Wallich in their May, 2011 issue. You can click here to check out the online version of the article.

But that is only the beginning of the story. Less than two days after the IEEE Spectrum article went online, Popular Science and Discovery Channel Continue reading IEEE Spectrum features BeeHacker.com

Tulip Poplar Flow

Georgia has had lousy weather in the last couple weeks. But with all that wind and rain, the bees are still finding some nectar.  Tulip Poplar has been blooming for about three weeks now and the following chart of hive weights show it. Continue reading Tulip Poplar Flow