Swarmy - Measure Sound Levels in your Beehives
Detailed App Info:
Application Description
Swarmy helps you to measure sound levels inside your beehives. You'll need to connect a mic to your iOS device and get it into your hive or put it beneath your screened bottom board by attaching it to a stick. In order to get a mic into your hive I recommend building a mic frame.
— Use —
1) Warble:
To track swarm preparation you would simply select the Warble filter and write down the sound level once a day, preferably at night when they bees aren't flying, and if you see that sound level rising then the bees maybe be preparing to swarm.
2) Knock:
The knock filter helps you to better hear the bees defensive reaction when you knock on the side of the hive. This can be a good indicator for how strong the queen is or how close the bees are to swarming. In a queen-right hive that is not preparing to swarm you should hear a short, sharp hiss in reaction to knocking on the side of the hive. If that sound becomes weaker, longer, or non-existent then the bees are indicating a change in behavior. If a weakening hiss is occurring at the same time that the warble level is increasing then the hive has likely entered a swarm cycle.
— Background —
In 1964, Eddie Woods (1901 - 1976) - an English radio engineer - created a device called the Apidictor. It would filter sound from a beehive to make certain frequencies easier to hear and measure. Eddie had a keen ear and had discovered that honey bees produce different sounds depending on conditions within the hive. For instance, if you knock once on the outside of a hive you should hear a short, sharp hiss. The shorter and more intense this reaction is indicates how defensive the bees are and indicates that the hive is queen-right. The other phenomena he was interested in was a warble produced when brood was no longer hatching and/or the queen was eating less. The nurse bees produce this warble and he discovered it was an indicator for swarming. Using the apidictor a beekepper would regularly measure the sound level and as it changed could decide when a hive inspection was appropriate.
There isn't much information available about Eddie Wood's research but a few people have taken it up again in the hopes of learning more. I built Swarmy to help beekeepers study this phenomenon.
— Use —
1) Warble:
To track swarm preparation you would simply select the Warble filter and write down the sound level once a day, preferably at night when they bees aren't flying, and if you see that sound level rising then the bees maybe be preparing to swarm.
2) Knock:
The knock filter helps you to better hear the bees defensive reaction when you knock on the side of the hive. This can be a good indicator for how strong the queen is or how close the bees are to swarming. In a queen-right hive that is not preparing to swarm you should hear a short, sharp hiss in reaction to knocking on the side of the hive. If that sound becomes weaker, longer, or non-existent then the bees are indicating a change in behavior. If a weakening hiss is occurring at the same time that the warble level is increasing then the hive has likely entered a swarm cycle.
— Background —
In 1964, Eddie Woods (1901 - 1976) - an English radio engineer - created a device called the Apidictor. It would filter sound from a beehive to make certain frequencies easier to hear and measure. Eddie had a keen ear and had discovered that honey bees produce different sounds depending on conditions within the hive. For instance, if you knock once on the outside of a hive you should hear a short, sharp hiss. The shorter and more intense this reaction is indicates how defensive the bees are and indicates that the hive is queen-right. The other phenomena he was interested in was a warble produced when brood was no longer hatching and/or the queen was eating less. The nurse bees produce this warble and he discovered it was an indicator for swarming. Using the apidictor a beekepper would regularly measure the sound level and as it changed could decide when a hive inspection was appropriate.
There isn't much information available about Eddie Wood's research but a few people have taken it up again in the hopes of learning more. I built Swarmy to help beekeepers study this phenomenon.
Requirements
Your mobile device must have at least 1.84 MB of space to download and install Swarmy - Measure Sound Levels in your Beehives app. Swarmy - Measure Sound Levels in your Beehives was updated to a new version. Purchase this version for $2.99
If you have any problems with installation or in-app purchase, found bugs, questions, comments about this application, you can visit the official website of James Moore at http://jmoore.me/swarmy/.
Copyright © 2013 James Moore
