This week I had the opportunity to meet a couple of young entrepreneurs, Ellie Symes and Wyett Wells, who have spent a few years developing a very promising approach to quickly evaluating colony strength using infrared technology (IR). An image of a colony is taken with a small IR camera attached to a smartphone. The camera simultaneously takes a visible light picture. The visible light picture is used to correct for some of the variables such as box color, construction features, and ambient and reflected light. Their software then evaluates the image to reliably estimate the strength of the bee colony within.

Check out their web site for more details: The Bee Corp 

A page from their website with a good image is HERE

(Regrettably I did not get a picture of them at the ranch. Next time!)