# An Internet of Things-Based Low-Power Integrated Beekeeping Safety and Conditions Monitoring System
## 1 Introduction  
The Internet of Things (IoT) industry is shifting at a fast pace towards the agricultural sector, aiming for the vast applicability of new technologies. Existing applications in agriculture are classified into four major fields, which are (i) agricultural environment monitoring and control systems, (ii) open field agriculture systems (Geographical Information Systems), (iii) food supply chain tracking and (iv) livestock monitoring [1; 2; 3]. This paper is focused on livestock monitoring, proposing the implementation of an IoT management and alert system for modern apiculture. Artificial beehive cells are used in the beekeeping industry as sites for the establishment of honeybee colonies. The environmental conditions both inside and around the beehives is of major importance to the success of colony establishment and production. An important factor in apiary that affects both colony survival and honey yield is the ability to regulate the beehive temperature [4; 5]. Since bee colonies are sensitive to temperature fluctuations, honeybees are actively involved in the thermoregulation of the colony [6], and low temperatures affect the increased mobility of the bees, and thus the reduction of honey yield. Similarly, high humidity levels lead to the production of propolis and wax. As reported both in the literature [4; 5; 7] and observed by local beekeepers [8; 9], in conditions of atmospheric humidity higher than 70%, the beehive requires manual ventilation. So far, beehive ventilation has been dealt with by the use of special ventilation holes on the upper compartment of the beehive cells. This method of ventilation from the top (under the lid on the side walls of the hive) is considered inefficient when the environmental humidity measurements are greater than 90% [9; 10]. The moisture reduction mechanisms, employed by the bee colony to prevent the growth of mold withinthe cells, are mainly based on propolis construction, a rich resinous product with antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal properties. As a result, the bee swarm fills the hive brood box with propolis, therefore limiting the amount of produced honey. In addition, when moisture levels are extremely high, it may lead to underdevelopment and ultimately to the death of bees. Common practices for temperature regulation in apiculture are still manual in nature, performed by covering the beehives or placing them in sunshade (using insulation materials or blankets for temperature control). Humidity is also manually performed by closing or opening the ventilation holes and hive output hole, or using fans placed at the bottom stand of the brood box. The proposed Integrated Beekeeping System of holistic Management and Control (IBSMC) system offers both safety as well as conditions monitoring using low power RF data transmissions over a central hive to a cloud-based Information System. Transmitted data include long-range LoRaWAN class A communication via Internet-connected LoRaWAN gateways to the Information System, where collective conditions trends for the beehive array and isolated beehive cells security incidents are stored. These IoT technologies are incorporated into the apiculture, trying to reduce the energy footprint and overcome the energy limitations of existing beehive conditions and safety systems that utilize LTE cellular data transmissions. Furthermore, the proposed IBSMC system's new beehive cells (described in Section 3) are equipped with new thermo-regulating actuator systems (thermopads, peltier cells), incorporated in the beehive cell brood box. The new beehive cells also include a novel system of natural air flow based on micro-servos for the process of beehive cell moisture extraction, in contrast to existing fan-based solutions. Existing beehive conditions' monitoring and safety systems are both described in detail in Section 2. This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents existing beehive systems and their capabilities, focusing on beehive arrays security and conditions monitoring.