Ya an IR camera would be nice, but due to 10 frames packed in a box with only like an inch or less between them, not really possible. 
Not a bad price, through hole would be easier for a noob like me to solder but also bigger component to deal with and interfering with the bee's hive building area... good price too, and if he'd offer a good discount (donate to science? lol), then we'd be set.
The project I'm getting my idea from used custom ATMEL board and code, which he's willing to share the plans and code with me. So I think that's looking to be the more attractive method now, although I need to build multiple of the boards for redundancy purposes. Arduino would be nice since it's a standard board that you can quickly get replacements for.... He used the TMP275 so I'd probably be stuck with that chip unless he'd be willing to recode/design the whole thing.
1-wire with the DS18B20 sounds nice though, probably a ton easier to design and wire up.