Beehive Air Sampling and Sensing Device Operation in Apicultural Applications—Methodological and Technical Aspects

The basis of effective beekeeping is the information about the state of the bee colony. A rich source of respective information is beehive air. This source may be explored by applying gas sensing. It allows for classifying bee colony states based on beehive air measurements. In this work, we discussed the essential aspects of beehive air sampling and sensing device operation in apicultural applications. They are the sampling method (diffusive vs. dynamic, temporal aspects), sampling system (sample probe, sampling point selection, sample conditioning unit and sample delivery system) and device operation mode (‘exposure-cleaning’ operation). It was demonstrated how factors associated with the beehive, bee colony and ambient environment define prerequisites for these elements of the measuring instrument. These requirements have to be respected in order to assure high accuracy of measurement and high-quality information. The presented results are primarily based on the field measurement study performed in summer 2020, in three apiaries, in various meteorological conditions. Two exemplars of a prototype gas sensing device were used. These sensor devices were constructed according to our original concept.