In beekeeping, you don't just get to mess with the unpredictability of living creatures, you also get to tinker, build, and invent machines. HoneyPi and Beelogger, Hani-Mandl and an automatic labeling machine are good examples.

The garden beekeeper has been tinkering for as long as he can remember, interrupted only by the phase of life when the children were young. For a long time, the focus was on remote-controlled flying machines, and on various carpentry work. It was not until 2019 that he ventured into microelectronics, which is high time for someone whose job involves the development of electronic control units. Modifying the program code himself, and taking this opportunity to brush up on his 30-year-old basic programming skills, is a matter of honor. 

Admittedly, at the level at which he does this tinkering, it's almost as easy as building Lego.

The cool thing these days is the virtual online communities: There are instructions for everything, googleable within a moment. And if necessary, you can get support from other enthusiasts who know even more than you do and share their knowledge openly. 

And anyway, it's unbelievable for how little money such projects can be realized today.... 

A perfect complement is the 3D printer. What an enrichment! It opens up almost endless creative possibilities of creating things, almost anything is possible. Even mundane parts like a spacer can be designed in 5 minutes and printed in 10. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the established storage of thousands and thousands of small parts ("Don't throw that away, I'm sure I can still use it someday...").