Know what your hive weighs without opening it.
Combweigh sits under one hive and sends its weight to your phone every hour. You see the flow start the week it starts, and in October you know whether the hive has enough for winter without lifting the back of the box.
EUR 290 per scale. Nothing is charged until batch 2 is built.
What the weight tells you
A hive's weight moves every day. Foragers leave in the morning and come back loaded, nectar dries down overnight, and in winter the colony eats its way through the stores. One reading an hour is enough to see each of these as a shape on the chart.
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A nectar flow starts
The line climbs through the afternoon and keeps most of the gain overnight, day after day. When the chestnut opens on Pelion or the cotton flowers on the plain, you see it that week, and you know when the next super needs to go on.
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A swarm leaves
A swarm takes a large part of the colony, and the honey in their stomachs, in a few minutes, usually around midday. The chart drops in one step. The app tells you while there's still a chance the cluster is hanging in a tree nearby.
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Winter stores run low
In October you set the weight you want the hive to stay above. Through winter the line slides slowly as the bees eat. If it gets close to your mark before the almond trees flower, you get a message and time to feed. Nobody has to lift the back of the box in the cold to guess.
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A hive suddenly gets lighter
Robbing, a box knocked over by wind or an animal, someone moving the hive. A sharp drop outside swarm season is worth a drive out. The scale can't tell you which it was. It tells you to go and look.
How it works
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Slide the platform under the hive
A galvanised steel frame, 7 cm tall, with a load cell in each corner. It takes Langstroth and Dadant boxes. Top-bar hives on legs get four separate feet instead, one under each leg.
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It weighs on the hour
The electronics box on the side of the platform takes a reading every hour, with the air temperature, and keeps it in memory. In swarm season you can switch to every 15 minutes from the app.
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It sends over the mobile network
An LTE-M modem with a data SIM that works across the EU. When the apiary loses signal, readings wait in memory and go out together when it comes back.
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You read it on your phone
One chart per hive, by day, week or season, and three alerts you set yourself: a sudden drop, a steady gain, and a floor weight for winter.
Why we chose mobile data
Apiaries tend to be a long way from Wi-Fi. LoRa needs a gateway in range, and in hill country that usually means buying one, mounting it somewhere high and keeping it powered. LTE-M uses the masts that are already there, roams between EU networks and is made for small devices that send a little data and sleep in between.
What it costs is a data plan, so the first two years are in the price of the scale.
Where there is no signal at all, the scale cannot send. Check your phone at the hives before you reserve. The form asks about it.
Specifications
This is the design spec for batch 2. Where a line says design target, it is what the scale is built to do. A full season of batch 2 in the field comes after it ships.
| Weighing range | 0 to 150 kg on the platform |
|---|---|
| Reading steps | 50 g design target |
| Readings | Every hour, or every 15 minutes when you switch it on |
| Load cells | Four, one per corner, stainless steel |
| Temperature | Outside air, logged with every reading |
| Radio | LTE-M, with NB-IoT where LTE-M is missing |
| Data | EU IoT SIM, first two years included; a standard nano SIM slot |
| Memory without signal | About 60 days of hourly readings design target |
| Solar version | 5 W panel on a short mast, LiFePO4 battery |
| Running without sun | Two weeks of hourly readings design target |
| Cold | The charger pauses below 0 °C and starts again with the morning sun |
| Mains version | 12 V adapter, 5 m outdoor cable |
| Electronics box | IP67, breathable membrane vent, stainless screws |
| Platform | Galvanised steel, 52 x 52 cm, 7 cm tall |
| Operating temperature | -20 to +55 °C design target |
| Weight of the scale | About 7 kg |
| App | Runs in your phone's browser; add it to the home screen. Every reading downloads as CSV |
| Warranty | Two years, repairs done in the workshop |
Price
EUR 290 per scale, solar. In the box: the platform, the electronics, the panel and its mast, and two years of data.
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Combweigh, solar
EUR 290 / per scale
- Platform, electronics, 5 W panel and mast, two years of data
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Combweigh, mains
EUR 270 / per scale
- Same scale with a 12 V adapter and 5 m cable instead of the panel
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Top-bar feet instead of the platform
EUR 30 / extra per scale
- Four load-cell feet, one under each leg of a top-bar hive
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Data after the first two years
EUR 12 / per scale per year
- Or put your own nano SIM in the slot
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Shipping within Greece
Included
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Shipping to the rest of the EU
EUR 25 / per order
Prices include Greek VAT at 24%. Nothing is charged when you reserve. When batch 2 is built, each reservation gets a confirmation with the final price and a payment link, and you decide then.
Batch 2
Batch 1 was the scales under our own hives through the 2026 season. Batch 2 is the first we're building for other beekeepers, and it's planned for spring 2027. Reserving tells us how many to build and which versions. It costs nothing, and you can drop out at any point before you pay.
Two of us, in Thessaly
We keep bees, and one of us has repaired electronics for a living for a long time. Combweigh started as a scale for our own hives, because we were tired of lifting the back of every box in October to guess whether it would make it to spring.
The boards are designed here. The platforms are cut and welded by a metal shop near us, and every scale is put together and checked on our bench before it ships.
In the apiary
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A terrace apiary, with the scale under the green hive -
A top-bar hive on four weighing feet -
A load cell and the electronics box -
The bench where every scale is put together
Questions
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Does the scale bother the bees?
The hive sits on the platform the way it sat on its stand. The platform adds 7 cm of height, so check that the top box is still at a comfortable height for your back.
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What if there's no signal at the apiary?
The scale is designed to keep about two months of readings in memory, and it sends them when it finds a signal. If the hives sit in a valley with none at all, it can't send from there. A longer antenna cable up the slope sometimes reaches a signal, so tell us about the site in the form.
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I move my hives for the season. Does the scale come too?
Lift the hive, carry the platform with it and set it back under. The scale picks up whichever network is there, in Greece or elsewhere in the EU, and the chart carries on.
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Do I need one scale per hive?
No. A common way to start is one scale under a typical hive in each apiary, and reading the others against it. If one hive matters more than the rest, a colony you raise queens from for example, give it its own.
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Who sees the readings?
You do. Readings are stored on a server in the EU. You can download every reading as a CSV file whenever you like, and deleting your account deletes them.
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What happens after the first two years of data?
Data costs EUR 12 a year per scale after that. If you'd rather use your own SIM, the slot takes a standard nano SIM.
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Can I repair it myself?
The battery, the panel and the cable glands are standard parts held by screws. The board is ours: if it fails within the two-year warranty, send it back and we repair or replace it.
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When do I pay?
Not now. When batch 2 is built you get a confirmation with the final price and a payment link. Until you pay, you can change the number of scales or drop out.
Reaching us
The way to reach us is the reservation form. We don't publish a phone number: most days we're at the bench or in an apiary with gloves on. If your question isn't about a reservation, put it in the last box of the form.