The Effect of Months of the Year, Recorded by a Smart Bee Device, on the Temperature and Relative Humidity of Beehives and Broods

Threats from different origins are affecting agriculture in general and beekeeping in particular. Climate change, diseases, the use of pesticides, insecticides, thefts and genetic erosion due to random crossing of exotic and native strains. Internet of Things (IoT) devices have found many applications to reduce these threats, including the honeybees sector. They consist of embedded sensing, computing, and communication devices, connected to the Internet through specific lightweight messaging protocols. A SmartBee%2B Device, developed by Beekeeper Tech (www.smartbeekeeper.com) was used and honeybees information have been gathered during three years period 2020-2021, from over 100 in-field beehives. Each beehive was set up at a different location in Tunisia, France and New Zealand. A SmartBee%2B device connects to one beehive and operates in several modes%253A the Monitoring mode, the Transhumance mode, the Tracking mode, and the hibernate mode. Two embedded sensors and two external sensors measured the hives main parameters%253A The inner beehive%252339%253Bs temperature and relative humidity and the Brood%252339%253Bs temperature and its relative Humidity. In addition, the hive%252339%253Bs location is recorded with a GPS module. A total of 51444 and 50671 temperature and relative humidity records from the hives and 8756 records of the temperature and relative humidity at the brood level were used in this study, analyzed and results presented and discussed. Main results showed how honeybees workers mitigate the heat burden at the brood level by increasing their temperature till 7deg%253BC in winter and decreasing the brood temperature by 8 deg%253BC in summer hot months. Breeding values of queens, based on their endothermic mechanism trait, can be predicted to improve their ability to cope with extreme temperatures and select well-adapted strains. These improvements will affect positively the majority of small beehives keepers in the world by reducing the loss of their colonies.