THE HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT AND NEW RESEARCHES

The development of APIVOX AUDITOR began in the spring of 2015 with selection of scientific works related to the topic of acoustic control.

As it turned out, there was not too many such a works. Most of the works were done by scientists from the United States and several works were from Russia.

For the whole summer we studied scientific materials, and conducted testings using a conventional spectrum analyzer. But the results were mediocre enough, although they confirmed that the signals really exists, and they are divided into several main groups. The change of signals during the day was noted.

In September 2015, the direct development of algorithms and the writing of the program began. In November 2015, we began verification of the parts of the program in real conditions.

Next tests were conducted in January 2016. We checked Monitoring mode and General State control mode.

In the beginning of March, the development of the program in its primary form was completed. Now it was required to carry out mass measurements to understand the correctness of the algorithms and the work of interface of the device. But how can this be done? In Russia was still winter. It was decided to continue works in Spain. Spring, and honey harvest in Spain have already begun in February. This is why, our researches has moved to 5000 kilometers in the direction of the south.

The first measurements took place at the small urban apiary in Tarragona. Here it was possible to check the state of bees, associated with the swarming process. Almost all hives had swarming queen cells. Here, when testing the device in Swarming Control mode, we realized that there is an intermediate state when the bees subsides after the laying of swarming queen cells. In future, our device had to take this into account.

Then we moved to a small apiary, situated far in the mountains in the province of Priorat, which is famous for its red wines. Here the bees worked on the flowers of rosemary. The work was weak. The General State Control mode was tested.

The next testing was carried out in the province of Tarragona, on the apiary where reared queens of Iberian bee breed. Swarming Control mode and Monitoring mode was checked.

The next place of testing was the apiary in the valley of the river Ebre, on which were placed nucleuses with young queens. Here, the results of our measurements confirmed, that the size of the family does not matter for proper diagnosis of the general condition of the family, thanks to our algorithm which allocate useful components of the signal.

The next place of testing was a commodity apiary, located close to the blossoming oranges in the valley of river Ebre. Here we tested, General State control mode, and Swarming Control mode, which gave good results - three out of four diagnostics of swarming state, turned out to be correct. Testing of the Readiness Control mode has shown, that the algorithm is needs to be changed.

The next place of testing was a commodity apiary actively working on honey collection in mandarin gardens in the province of Alicante. Here it was possible to obtain results characterizing the high flying activity of families. Only the General State control mode was tested.

Obtained information was enough to correct the program and improve some of the modes. Improvements have affected the General State Control mode. The Readiness Control mode was adjusted. There was found and studied new scientific works, concerning acoustic control of the bees.

By the time of completion of work on the correction of the program, the spring had reached Russia. Now it was possible to study the Swarming state of bees, and to make replacement of queens using Readiness Control and Acceptance Control modes in Russia. In Spain, the summer heat began.

The first tests of the device in the Readiness Control mode, showed that the signal exists, but the program needs to be altered in order to reliably fix the "hive singing" signal.

The program was adjusted and testing of the device with a new algorithms and new capabilities began. In particular, with the graph of the signal change in Readiness Control mode.

The next stage of testing was held in the apiary of the Russian Research Institute of Beekeeping in Rybnoye, Ryazan. The task was to obtain a large number of measurements in General State control mode, in the period of honey collection. Here, the presence of passive bees during the honey collection was fixed and scientifically explained.​

All the further summer and autumn the device was tested in the modes of Readiness Control and Acceptance Control, as well as monitoring of the condition of families using General State Control mode. The last correction was successful. There were several direct replacements of the queens with good results. We made a lot of videos, that formed the basis of many films.

Was written a few articles for Russian beekeeping magazine

In the late autumn, we started to test our device in winter mode.

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Testing of the device in winter mode continued at the apiary of the Russian Research Institute of Beekeeping, where we've got the possibility to test three groups of wintering bees in the premises and on the street. As a result of testing, the winter mode was adjusted . Basing on the results of the monitoring, we made recommendations concerning the features of winter control of bee families.

In June, a pilot test of the bee family was conducted in urban conditions. The results were excellent. The control did not cause aggression of the bees. The results were very interesting.

Further on, during summer time, there were conducted a lot of tests with different types of microphones in different modes.

In general, the summer and autumn of 2017 were devoted to improvements in the capabilities of the device in Monitoring mode and General State Control mode, regarding the diagnosis of problems with the queen, and monitoring of the working state of bees' family.

New visit to the apiary of the Research Institute of Beekeeping helped to collect a lot of additional statistical information.

During the late August honey harvest, a study was made of a set of signals, accompanying the work on the collection and processing of honey.

New testing of bee families in winter mode began In the autumn of 2017. The bees were placed on the street in the pavilion.

In February and March 2018,we monitored the families, hibernating in the street in the pavilion, using microphones inserted in the hives. Some features of control of different bee breeds in cold weather conditions were revealed.

In March, we began tests, the purpose of which was to determine the relative number of brood in bee families. These studies became possible after a serious theoretical studies, based on the researches of European scientists. Preliminary results showed the possibility of such a diagnosis in principle.

Today we conducted new tests, devoted to determining of number of brood in the bees families. We tested three family of different power. The strength of the signal depends on the number of bees in the family, and the ​proportional number of open brood, as well as on the strength of the honey collection and the ability of the family to use it.

The whole May was devoted to obtaining new data on the use of the device in Swarming Control mode. As always, the device revealed a propensity to show borderline diagnosis already in the beginning of the swarming process, at the stage of construction by bees of swarming queen cells.

In addition, were conducted new tests, the main goal of which was to find the part of the family, where remained the queen, after division of the family in half ,without searching for the queen. Testing was successful. The location of the queen was found with high accuracy. On the base of materials of control, it was made video.

In our small workshop was made an observational beehive to conduct experiments with the goal to identify the correspondence of acoustic signals to certain actions of bees.

At the end of July, once more time a series of tests using the hive with glass walls was conducted. These tests showed the possibility of determining the kind of work performed by the bees, according to the sounds emitted by working bees. During experiments was obtained a clear separation of the signals in the brood zone and in the honey processing zone of the nest.

n the first days of August, with the help of new version of the program "APIVOX SMART MONITOR" was carried out testing of all families of experimental apiary. During this testing, according to our opinion, was confirmed the possibility of correctness of our new theory of communications in bees...

In September we worked with our observation hive and the rest of experimental families. And we've got some new results....

In September, we analyzed sound recordings from two different hives, using different modes of the Apivox Smart Monitor. On the picture you can see the appearance of two sound signals, recorded at intervals of several minutes in two different hives on a warm sunny day at the end of August. In our opinion and hearing, these signals are distinguished only by the fact that the first signal is somewhat weaker. We are not able to understand other differences.

But we conducted an inspection of these families, and know that their condition is different. So, for the beginning, we use the main control mode - Control of the General State. We will carry out control on a long interval of measurement. We get the result. Measurements in the General Condition Monitoring Mode and in the Readiness for Honey collection Control Mode showed significant differences in the condition of families. One of them is busy with providing its survival, the other is actively working on honey collection.

The result is absolutely correct. One family - queenless offshoot with 4 frames of brood, and without bees which can fly for nectar collection, the second - a offshoot with young queen, which works well and later, gave 20 kilograms of honey.

In October we conducted one more experiment, with the main goal - to control vibro-acoustic signals of bees in the state of the wintering, as well as signals which appear in the process of transition of bees' family to the active state. In addition, there was elaborated, the procedure of assistance to the bees' family during wintering period, with its shifting to the active state, with careful monitoring of the acoustic background of the family, and after the bees could change place and get food, with subsequent return to the state of hibernation.

All parameters of the bees state were controlled, from the phase of beginning of active works and ventilation, till shifting the bees to the passive state after they did all needed works. We could observe the work of the queen and her retinue... and care on brood... And after all, slow transfer to the state of hibernation.

The technique of help for wintering family has fully justified itself. Moreover, it was once again checked and fixed the composition of the signals, accompanying the transition of the family to the active state, similar to the spring one, when the sun begins to warm the hives.

At the same time, we made our best for popularization of the app and the method of acoustic control in the international beekeeping community. It was written a lot of articles in the scientific journal of the European community. We worked with beekeepers from the United States and Romania.

Beekeeping magazines has published a couple of new articles with materials of our work. https://www.beeculture.com/product-reviews-4/?fbclid=

In November we formulated the main ideas and started the development of WORLD-WIDE SYSTEM OF DIAGNOSTIC OF THE STATE OF BEES' FAMILIES, ON THE BASIS OF ANALYSIS OF VIBRO-ACOUSTIC SIGNALS EMITTED BY THE BEES, USING APIVOX SMART MONITOR ALGORITHMS