Author: Inga Smith

I'm a nature artist and community educator....this is a scrapbook of my life’s explorations.💜💛💚

Picture of the Month-2018

April 2018 Honey bee gathering pollen from the first blooms of the season: candytuft May 2018 May started a very long drought season. Bees were searching hard for water, so we added these chick water stations throughout the raspberry patch. Worked great. June 2018 Our bees love thyme, which gives us the earliest blooms and…

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Wild Sprout Apiary 2018

Choose equipment that is right for you. Love this hobby because I’m confident that I’ll always be learning something new! The one thing I’ve learned in these first 5 years is simply this: there is no one-size-fits-all equipment list for bee keepers. There are so many variables you must assess: weather, nearby foliage, local laws…

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BeeCam Step 3: It’s Alive!

Now that the Raspberry Pi (RPI) is set up, it’s time to get the BeeCam up-and-running, quickly and inexpensively. For my project, I wanted the ability to view the bees at various times throughout the day. For this project, I’m not interested in saving pictures or videos (like a security camera might do). Prerequisites The…

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Build Your Own BeeCam Step 1: Basics

Step 1: Basics for your BeeCam Contents Why the R. Pi? What to order How to set it up, attached to a monitor and home network Purpose Getting started and building with Raspberry Pi is well documented, but everyone seems to have a different solution. When I was getting started, I found myself spending too…

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Build Your Own BeeCam

Back in 2015, in the dawn of IOT (internet of things) development, I purchased a Raspberry Pi using my birthday money. I had hoped with just a little investment, I could collect data and build a webcam for my bees and then, anytime I needed a little “zen,” I could whip out my phone and…

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Smoking: Girls Best Friend

I use smoke on the hives only when I’m doing a complete inspection. Seems like it’d be easy to light paper on fire, but starting fire at the bottom of a can is actually a little tricky. I have it down finally. Here is my stuff that I love with the steps enumerated: Paper: Shredded/dry…

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