I spent the day working on a BeeCam. It's an idea I've had for a long time and I think it's time to do something about it. Version 1 is not great. The resolution sucks and I have no hope that the queen cell will hatch but it proves the concept.
I'm using an old Motorola X cell phone as a wireless IP camera using this software. The resolution has to be pretty low for this phone to process the video and send it through the Wi-Fi however it works great on my tablet.
This is the Queen Cell you see in the Live Stream.
It's still sealed and the wax has been removed from the end of it meaning the bees think it's ready to hatch. You can see it is at the far edge or outside edge of the brood "arc". Bees tend to lay eggs from the center of the brood patch out. Which means that our Queen cell is younger than the brood closer to the center of the arc, by a few hours or even a day. Using the surrounding brood we can gauge the age of the queen cell.
Queens hatch in 16 days, Workers hatch in 21 days. So when the hatching brood meets the Queen cell we can be sure the queen is not going to hatch. My guess is that this queen cell is 19 or 20 days old now. I have no hope that the queen will hatch but it gives me something to test with and get my cameras and lights setup.
The tripod was too tall. I wanted to get the queen cell from below so you could see her hatch, so I hung the tripod from the shelf above. Those wire shelves have been useful.
I have an 8MP 4K camera on order and I am supposed to get it this Friday. I will be replacing that old MotoX with the HighDef camera ASAP.
I think to really enjoy the bees you need High Definition.
Be sure to check out the new bee cam on the Mean Rooster Farm Live Strem at Vimm.TV
