TIME for a new hive? The accelerometers that detect motion in smartphones have been turned into listening devices for predicting when a queen honeybee will desert her old hive.
Martin Bencsik‘s team at Nottingham Trent University, UK, embedded accelerometers into the back wall of two hives to detect the motion caused by the buzzing insects. Over five months, their computer learned the language of the buzzing hives, he says.
About 10 days before swarming, the bees produce a distinct vibration that could alert beekeepers to prepare for the event, when they might otherwise lose many bees (Computers and Electronics…
