Hive Scale
Lexikon
A hive scale stands under a bee colony and records its weight.
A hive scale stands under a bee colony and records its weight. From the daily change the beekeeper can read whether and how strongly a flow is running. An increase means intake, a decrease means the colony is consuming more than it is gathering.
This makes the scale the most precise tool for the questions of when to add the honey super, when the flow ends and when harvesting is possible. It also shows the start of a nectar dearth before anything is noticeable at the colony, and in winter it shows feed consumption.
Modern scales transmit their values continuously and can be combined with temperature and humidity measurement. In Germany, the data from many scales is brought together in TrachtNet, which is run by the Bee Center in Mayen. This allows one's own location to be compared with the region.
A scale always measures only one colony. Because colonies develop differently, the trend is more informative than the absolute value, and changing the scale colony makes the series unusable.