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Beehive Monitoring System
Check on your Beehives
 From the Comfort of your Home

Apiary with hive monitoring sensors

Bee activity sensors allow a beekeeper to check on his honeybees while at home, without having to make a trip to his apiary which may be up to one-half mile away. The HiveSentry system was developed by Maine Biosensors LLC. It is a plug-and-play system that works "out of the box." It is a long-range, stand-alone system that requires no internet connection. The HiveSentry sensors are easy to install and do not require any modifications to the beehives. The HiveSentry sensors are completely passive and do not disturb the bees.

Maine Biosensors' HiveSentry
Beehive Monitoring System

A HiveSentry beehive monitoring system consists of one or more sensors and a base station.

Beehive monitoring sensor

The sensor is based on a pyroelectric infrared (PIR) element*. In order to fly honeybees must increase their body temperature a few degrees above the ambient temperature. The PIR element is so sensitive that it can detect an increase in infrared radiation caused by a single flying bee. The increase due to many bees flying in front of the hive is reported by the sensor to the base station every two minutes.

The sensor communicates with a base station via a long-range (LoRa) wireless link. The sensor and base station may be separated by up to 1/2 mile.

* Aumann, H. and Aumann, A., "Analog Pyroelectric Infrared Sensor for Non-Invasive Beehive Monitoring," 2023 IEEE Sensors Conference

Base station for beehive monitoring sensor

On the base station display, in the beekeepers's home, he will be able to:

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  • Monitor up to four beehives

  • Watch hive population build-up

  • Detect weak hives

  • Detect swarming

  • Detect robbing

  • Detect animal or human incursions 24 hours/day

A HiveSentry system may be purchased from Maine Biosensors with several different options: ​

 

  • A basic HiveSentry  system, consisting of one sensor and a base station

  • The most common HiveSentry system, consisting of three sensors and one base station

  • Additional sensors can be added, up to a maximum of four sensors per base station

Click on the button to find out how the HiveSentry system works. ​

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