#IoT in Beekeeping

[george275]

Unlocking Success: The Art of the Apiculture Process

In the realm of agriculture, the apiculture process stands out as a vital component, contributing not only to honey production but also to the pollination of crops. This multifaceted process begins with the establishment of hives, strategically placed to optimize bee foraging patterns. Beekeepers actively engage in the apiculture process by monitoring the hives, implementing disease prevention measures, and facilitating the natural activities of the bee colonies. During the honey extraction phase of the apiculture process, beekeepers employ specialized techniques and equipment to collect honey without disrupting the overall hive dynamics. The sustainable practice of apiculture process is essential for maintaining ecological balance and supporting the critical role of bees in global food production.

[findyiot]

IoT Weather Stations: Not just a rain forecast tool

Drones and light planes rely on IoT weather data for safe operation, especially in delivery or surveying applications where wind speed and direction matter. Localized weather data provides a closer real-time snapshot of conditions, aiding decision making. Local area risk analysis aids many outdoor use cases, such as ski resorts, surf schools, or forestry managers.

[williamsenwss]

A Comprehensive Guide to Beehive Monitoring Techniques and Technologies

Explore the world of beehive monitoring and gain a deep understanding of the techniques and technologies that can transform your beekeeping practices. This comprehensive guide delves into the intricacies of beehive monitoring, offering valuable insights for both novice and experienced beekeepers. Learn how beehive monitoring empowers you to make informed decisions, ensuring the health and productivity of your hives. From remote sensing to IoT solutions, this guide covers it all, making it a must-read for those looking to elevate their beekeeping skills.

[modern-beekeeping-using-iot]

Gobuzzr is an unique IoT based smart beehive monitoring system. It is used to increase the productivity of the honey, tracks the weight of the bee hive and monitor the health of bees and send a timely alert to the beekeepers via smartphone.

[kariot]

Monitor Honey Bee health by Smart Sensor Technology created by GobuzzR using IoT. The beehive monitoring ystem is an IoT device monitoring project which tracks data of bees and their colonies.

[rat-with-coffee]

Nonbinary + Bee moodboard!!

Bee pics ~ https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/life/2016/03/17/honeybees-and-flowers-they-visit/81933372/ https://www.newscientist.com/term/bees/ https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/marquetteag/2016/05/14/bee-removal/ https://beemission.com/blogs/news/the-secret-reason-bees-love-blue-and-purple-flowers https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/04/22/how-artificial-intelligence-iot-and-big-data-can-save-the-bees/?sh=5f37eda61d9e https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2019/07/13/environment/hive-activity-tapping-buzz-backyard-beekeeping/ Non-binary stickers and pins ~ https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/Non-Binary-Pride-Minecraft-Bee-by-smnius/41342998.EJUG5 https://www.redbubble.com/shop/non+binary+drawing+stickers https://www.teepublic.com/stickers/nonbinary-flag

[lutoogyan]

Sateliot and S4IoT launch innovative beehive monitoring technology to increase global food security – TechToday

Newsletter Sed ut perspiciatis unde. Subscribe Sateliot will deliver 5G satellite connectivity to BeeWaze solutions, allowing beekeepers to monitor the temperature, weight and humidity of beehives and track pollination. Sateliot, the first company to operate a low-Earth orbit nanosatellite constellation with 5G standards, in collaboration with S4IoT, a developer of IoT solutions, have launched…

[indoorverticalfarmingnews]

UK-Funded Project Aims To Safeguard South African Beekeeping

The UK Government is funding an agri-tech project to safeguard the future of beekeeping in South Africa. The sector contributes significantly to the economy and provides employment and is experiencing declining beekeepers, threatening food production due to suboptimal pollination. The project aims to use IoT technology to transform beekeeping by using sensors to collect real-time data that can…

[moneycafe]

Gobuzzr's IoT Play Looks To Take The Sting Out Of Bee Farming

Gobuzzr’s IoT Play Looks To Take The Sting Out Of Bee Farming

[ad_1]

Gobuzzr‘s IoT-powered solution helps beekeepers and apiaries monitor hives in real-time through weight, internal humidity, temperature and sounds of the bees

The agritech startup is currently working with beekeepers and apiaries in Zimbabwe and the UK

It gives farmers customised solutions to help them maintain a healthy hive, increase productivity and income

The humble and oft-ignored…

[adalidda]

Illustration Photo: TERRA-MEPP robot in the field (credits: Steve Long / Flickr Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0))

Call for Startups Smart Agrifood Summit 2020

Smart Agrifood Summit selects the best startups to participate in our two intensive days from September 24 to 25, 2020, where they will have an international team of successful advisors, entrepreneurs, and investors, with unique activities designed to help you.

Join our community and become a member of the ecosystem. Together, we will work tirelessly on the promotion of entrepreneurship and digital innovation in the field of technologies to provide added value to the agri-food value chain, solving the world’s most significant challenges and using entrepreneurial tools.

Selected Startups will have the scholarship to help them participate in the Elevator Pitch (travel and hotel).

Participate in the five prizes of 120,000 dollars for the best startups:

The prize for the best European startup in the agri-food sector Award for the most innovative project The prize for the best practical solution for the agri-food sector Award for the project with the most significant inclusion of a gender perspective Sustainability Award

Project Selection Process Our intention is to work with an openmind about each team's ability to develop a project as part of the move towards our goal of gradually building up an entrepreneurial ecosystem for AgriFood. Projects in any of the following areas could be chosen: 1. Agriculture 2. Livestock 3. Fishing 4. Food and Catering 5. Agrifood distribution 6. Circular Economy 7. Blockchain 8. Agri-food hardware and software 9. Artificial intelligence applied to agriculture 10. Beekeeping 11. Sensor Systems 12. IoT 13. Food sales and distribution. 14. The shared economy. 15. Young Farmers 16. Agrifood in Africa and Latin America 17. COVID-19 and agrifood value chain 18. Others

Application Deadline: Monday, July 31, 2020. 6:00 PM CET

Check more https://adalidda.com/posts/yKqHMEAnnov2iosPM/call-for-startups-smart-agrifood-summit-2020

[uberclonescript]

Beehive Monitoring System & Ant Prevention: A Deep Dive into Modern Beekeeping and the Hidden World of Bees

Beehive Monitoring System

Introduction

The world of modern beekeeping has evolved beyond traditional practices. Today, with the integration of smart technologies, beekeepers can remotely monitor hive health, temperature, humidity, and more. A Beehive Monitoring System is no longer a futuristic concept but a modern necessity supporting hive maintenance and bee welfare. Alongside this, one persistent challenge that beekeepers face is ant infestation, which can harm both the hive and the honey production cycle. In this blog, we’ll explore effective tips to keep ants out of the beehive, present an ecumenical sketch of differential beehives, and offer an in-depth look at the hidden, uncharted world of bees.

1. The Importance of a Beehive Monitoring System

A Beehive Monitoring System uses IoT (Internet of Things) technology, smart sensors, and cloud computing to help beekeepers track vital hive parameters. These include:

Temperature and Humidity: Ensuring an ideal brood-rearing environment.

Weight Monitoring: Tracking honey production and consumption.

Sound Frequency Monitoring: Detecting changes in colony behavior or swarming.

Intrusion Alerts: Notifying beekeepers of animal or human interference.

Remote Access: Access data from any location using mobile or web applications.

Benefits for Beekeepers:

Reduced manual inspection

Early detection of health problems

Increased productivity

Data-driven hive management

Real-time insights into queen failure or hive abandonment

With climate change and rising threats to bee populations, these systems are indispensable in both commercial beekeeping and sustainable beekeeping practices. Beehive monitoring devices can also integrate weather forecasts and suggest best times for hive interventions, reducing human stress on colonies.

Key Features to Look for:

Solar-powered or battery-operated devices

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled options

Mobile alerts with AI insights

Waterproof, rugged design

Modular and scalable architecture

Embracing these features helps beekeepers adopt more eco-friendly and efficient operations.

2. Effective Tips to Keep Ants Out of the Beehive

Ant infestation in beehives is more than just an inconvenience; they are resource thieves. They steal honey, stress out bees, and can lead to hive abandonment. Here are some proven and effective tips to keep ants away from your beehive:

1. Apply a Moat Barrier

Use a water-filled tray under the hive legs. Ants can't swim and will be unable to cross.

Add a few drops of soap or oil to the water to ensure surface tension is broken.

2. Use Natural Repellents

Sprinkle cinnamon, vinegar, lemon juice, or diatomaceous earth around the hive base.

Essential oils such as peppermint and tea tree can be added to cotton balls placed near hive legs.

3. Grease the Hive Stand

Apply sticky substances like petroleum jelly or Tanglefoot on hive legs.

Reapply after rain or every two weeks to maintain effectiveness.

4. Keep the Hive Area Clean

Remove dead bees and spilled honey.

Avoid placing food or syrup containers near hives.

Use trash-proof fencing if your apiary is near populated areas.

5. Elevate the Hive

Position hives on stands with ant-proof barriers.

Consider placing the hive over a concrete or tile surface to reduce ant hiding spots.

6. Control Surrounding Vegetation

Trim grasses and remove climbing plants. This stops ants from using them as bridges.

Use weed cloth to prevent regrowth.

7. Use Ant Deterrent Traps

Commercial ant baits placed far from the hive can help reduce local ant populations.

Boric acid and sugar water traps work well in controlled use.

8. Inspect Regularly

Routine checks help catch infestations early.

Track and trail back to colonies and eliminate nests where possible.

Implementing these effective tips to keep ants out of the beehive will lead to healthier, more productive hives and reduce colony stress during nectar flow seasons.

3. Ecumenical Generic Sketch of Differential Beehives

Understanding the different types of beehives used globally helps in selecting the right model based on climate, bee species, and productivity goals. Here’s an ecumenical generic sketch of differential beehives:

Langstroth Hive (USA)

Most popular design globally

Stackable rectangular boxes with frames

Enables high honey yields

Preferred for commercial apiaries and migratory beekeeping

Top-Bar Hive (Africa, Caribbean, Urban Gardens)

Single horizontal box with removable bars

Bees build comb freely

Promotes natural colony structure

Ideal for educational settings and beginners

Warre Hive (France)

Vertical box hive mimicking wild tree cavities

Uses top-bars like the top-bar hive

Focused on bee welfare over honey harvest

Adds boxes from below, respecting bee instincts

Flow Hive (Australia)

A modern adaptation of Langstroth

Plastic frames allow honey extraction without opening hive

Suitable for backyard beekeepers and small-scale urban farms

Criticized for high costs and plastic use but praised for ease

Log Hive (Traditional - Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe)

Carved or hollowed-out logs

Minimal maintenance

Used by traditional or indigenous communities

Poor honey yield but excellent for pollination support

Each design plays a unique role in modern beekeeping, catering to regional climates, local flora, and beekeeper preferences. Selecting the right hive type can reduce stress for bees and enhance colony longevity.

Key Factors When Choosing a Hive:

Bee species (Apis mellifera vs. Apis cerana)

Climate and elevation

Access to tools and materials

Objective: Honey production, pollination, conservation, or education

4. In-Depth Information of the Uncharted Bees’ World

The In-Depth information of the uncharted bees world is as intricate as any human society. These pollinators are a cornerstone of Earth’s ecosystems, influencing agriculture, biodiversity, and climate resilience.

Social Structure and Roles

Queen Bee: Mother of all bees in the colony. Lives 3–5 years. Controlled by pheromones.

Worker Bees: All-female, sterile bees. Handle foraging, hive care, nursing, guarding, and cleaning.

Drone Bees: Males. Their sole role is mating with queens during nuptial flights.

Language of Bees

Waggle Dance: Communicates food source direction and distance.

Vibrational Signals: Used during swarming, queen replacement.

Scent Trails: Help return to hive or lead others to new nest locations.

Pollination and Food Security

Bees pollinate 1/3 of global crops.

Vital for almonds, apples, blueberries, cucumbers, and melons.

Estimated $235–577 billion in global crop value is attributable to bee pollination.

Navigational Marvels

Bees use sun position, magnetic fields, and polarized light to orient themselves.

Can recognize complex patterns, shapes, and even human faces.

Threats to Bee Survival

Pesticide Exposure: Neonicotinoids linked to Colony Collapse Disorder.

Parasites and Diseases: Varroa mites, Nosema, American Foulbrood.

Climate Change: Alters flowering seasons, disrupts nectar availability.

Habitat Loss: Urban expansion, monoculture farming.

Bees in Mythology and Culture

Considered sacred in many cultures (Egyptians, Mayans, Hindus).

Symbolize diligence, immortality, community.

Featured in medieval alchemy and modern corporate metaphors.

Learning about the in-depth, uncharted world of bees not only enhances your respect for these tiny engineers but also encourages sustainable co-existence.

5. Role of IoT in the Future of Beekeeping

The adoption of IoT-based Beehive Monitoring Systems is paving the way for precision apiculture  where data, automation, and AI guide decisions.

How IoT Transforms Beekeeping:

Real-Time Alerts: Notifies beekeepers of temperature spikes, predator intrusions, or honey theft.

Cloud-Connected Dashboards: Visualize long-term trends in hive performance.

AI Predictions: Anticipate swarming, colony decline, or queen loss.

Remote Decision-Making: Reduce fuel usage and human interaction.

Integration with Weather APIs: Suggest ideal harvest or inspection times.

Environmental Benefits:

Reduced carbon footprint through fewer in-person checks

Higher survival rates during harsh winters or droughts

Better disease management with early detection

Global Movement Toward Smart Beekeeping:

Projects in the EU and India are promoting Smart Hive initiatives.

Startups now offer subscription-based hive analytics services.

With these advancements, Beehive Monitoring Systems become the cornerstone of a bee-centric, data-driven future.

Smart Sensors in Beehive Monitoring: What’s Inside the Hive?

Modern beehive monitoring systems rely heavily on smart sensors that provide real-time insights. Here are the key types of sensors used and what they measure:

 Types of Sensors

Temperature Sensors

Keep track of brood temperature (ideal range: 32°C–35°C).

Fluctuations may indicate brood disease, queenlessness, or absconding.

Humidity Sensors

Monitor internal hive humidity.

Helps prevent mold and supports brood development.

Weight Sensors

Installed under the hive.

Track honey production and population growth.

Microphones / Acoustic Sensors

Record bee buzzing patterns.

Help detect swarming behavior, queen loss, or hive stress.

GPS Trackers

Used in mobile hives or during relocation.

Prevent theft and track hive movement.

CO₂ & Air Quality Sensors

Track respiratory activity.

Alert beekeepers to overcrowding or poor ventilation.

These sensors sync with cloud platforms or mobile apps, allowing beekeepers to monitor multiple hives across locations with ease.

How to Install and Maintain a Beehive Monitoring System

Setting up a smart beehive system may sound technical, but it's manageable even for small-scale beekeepers.

Installation Guide

Choose the Right System

Popular brands: BroodMinder, Arnia, BeeSecure, HiveWatch.

Compare based on sensor range, mobile compatibility, and pricing.

Install the Sensors

Temperature/humidity: inside or under the brood box.

Weight scale: place under the hive base.

Microphone: inside the hive lid or beneath the brood chamber.

Connect to the Network

Sync the sensors to Wi-Fi or a mobile network.

Install the associated app on your smartphone or tablet.

Start Monitoring

Set alerts for temperature drops, weight changes, or abnormal sounds.

Use collected data to adjust feeding, treatment, or hive maintenance.

Maintenance Tips

Check Battery Levels: Replace or recharge batteries regularly.

Clean Sensors: Wipe down gently during hive inspections.

Firmware Updates: Keep the system up-to-date for accuracy and security.

Test Alerts: Ensure that push notifications are working and calibrated properly.

The Future of Beekeeping: AI, Robotics, and Automation

As global awareness of bee conservation grows, beekeeping is entering a new era driven by automation and artificial intelligence.

AI-Driven Hive Management

Predictive Analytics: AI models use historical data to forecast swarming, disease outbreaks, or nectar flows.

Health Diagnosis: Algorithms analyze audio or visual input to detect problems like Varroa mites or queen failure.

Behavioral Analysis: AI tracks bee movement patterns to detect unusual behavior before colony collapse.

Robotic Assistants

Automated Inspections: Robotic arms with cameras can inspect hives without opening them.

Smart Dispensers: Deliver sugar syrup, water, or medication based on hive needs.

Drones: Used for environmental surveys, tracking foraging areas, or spraying organic mite treatments.

Blockchain & Data Sharing

Beekeepers can now share data globally through secure platforms, contributing to research and collaboration across borders.

Traceability ensures pure honey sourcing, building consumer trust and promoting sustainable practices.

Conclusion

Modern beekeeping is a blend of science, ecology, and care. The Beehive Monitoring System is an essential asset in ensuring hive health, improving productivity, and adapting to environmental changes. With the constant threat of ants, knowing effective prevention methods helps protect your colonies. From an ecumenical view of differential hives to understanding the uncharted world of bees, this field offers endless learning and discovery.

[george275]

Mastering Bees: Focusing in the Art and Science of Apiculture Process

Engaging in apiculture process demands a deep understanding of bee behavior and hive dynamics. The journey begins with the establishment of hives, strategically positioning them to optimize honey production. Regular hive maintenance is an integral part of the apiculture process, involving activities such as frame rotation, pest control, and disease prevention. Beekeepers carefully observe the seasonal variations that impact bee activity, adapting their management practices accordingly. The apiculture process is not only about honey production but also about promoting the overall well-being of the bee colony, creating a symbiotic relationship between beekeepers and their industrious pollinators.

[kindlecomparedinfo]

BeeHero smartens up hives to provide ‘pollination as a service’ with $4M seed round

Vast monoculture farms outstripped the ability of bee populations to pollinate them naturally long ago, but the techniques that have arisen to fill that gap are neither precise nor modern. Israeli startup BeeHero aims to change that by treating hives both as living things and IoT devices, tracking health and pollination progress practically in real time. It just raised a $4 million seed round that should help expand its operations into U.S. agriculture.

Honeybees are used around the world to pollinate crops, and there has been growing demand for beekeepers who can provide lots of hives on short notice and move them wherever they need to be. But the process has been hamstrung by the threat of colony collapse, an increasingly common end to hives, often as the result of mite infestation.

Hives must be deployed and checked manually and regularly, entailing a great deal of labor by the beekeepers — it’s not something just anyone can do. They can only cover so much land over a given period, meaning a hive may go weeks between inspections — during which time it could have succumbed to colony collapse, perhaps dooming the acres it was intended to pollinate to a poor yield. It’s costly, time-consuming, and decidedly last-century.

So what’s the solution? As in so many other industries, it’s the so-called Internet of Things. But the way CEO and founder Omer Davidi explains it, it makes a lot of sense.

“This is a math game, a probabilistic game,” he said. “We’ve modeled the problem, and the main factors that affect it are, one, how do you get more efficient bees into the field, and two, what is the most efficient way to deploy them? ”

Normally this would be determined ahead of time and monitored with the aforementioned manual checks. But off-the-shelf sensors can provide a window into the behavior and condition of a hive, monitoring both health and efficiency. You might say it puts the API in apiculture.

“We collect temperature, humidity, sound, there’s an accelerometer. For pollination, we use pollen traps and computer vision to check the amount of pollen brought to the colony,” he said. “We combine this with microclimate stuff and other info, and the behaviors and patterns we see inside the hives correlate with other things. The stress level of the queen, for instance. We’ve tested this on thousands of hives; it’s almost like the bees are telling us, ‘we have a queen problem.’ ”

All this information goes straight to an online dashboard where trends can be assessed, dangerous conditions identified early, and plans made for things like replacing or shifting less or more efficient hives.

The company claims that its readings are within a few percentage points of ground truth measurements made by beekeepers, but of course it can be done instantly and from home, saving everyone a lot of time, hassle, and cost.

The results of better hive deployment and monitoring can be quite remarkable, though Davidi was quick to add that his company is building on a growing foundation of work in this increasingly important domain.

“We didn’t invent this process, it’s been researched for years by people much smarter than us. But we’ve seen increases in yield of 30-35 percent in soybeans, 70-100 percent in apples and cashews in South America,” he said. It may boggle the mind that such immense improvements can come from just better bee management, but the case studies they’ve run have borne it out. Even “self-pollinating” (i.e. by the wind or other measures) crops that don’t need pollinators show serious improvements.

The platform is more than a growth aid and labor saver. Colony collapse is killing honeybees at enormous rates, but if it can be detected early, it can be mitigated and the hive potentially saved. That’s hard to do when time from infection to collapse is a matter of days and you’re inspecting biweekly. BeeHero’s metrics can give early warning of mite infestations, giving beekeepers a head start on keeping their hives alive.

“We’ve seen cases where you can lower mortality by 20-25 percent,” said Davidi. “It’s good for the farmer to improve pollination, and it’s good for the beekeeper to lose less hives.”

That’s part of the company’s aim to provide value up and down the chain, not just a tool for beekeepers to check the temperatures of their hives. “Helping the bees is good, but it doesn’t solve the whole problem. You want to help whole operations,” Davidi said. The aim is “to provide insights rather than raw data: whether the queen is in danger, if the quality of the pollination is different.”

Other startups have similar ideas, but Davidi noted that they’re generally working on a smaller scale, some focused on hobbyists who want to monitor honey production, or small businesses looking to monitor a few dozen hives versus his company’s nearly twenty thousand. BeeHero aims for scale both with robust but off-the-shelf hardware to keep costs low, and by focusing on an increasingly tech-savvy agriculture sector here in the States.

Let’s save the bees with machine learning

“The reason we’re focused on the U.S. is the adoption of precision agriculture is very high in this market, and I must say it’s a huge market,” Davidi said. “80 percent of the world’s almonds are grown in California, so you have a small area where you can have a big impact.”

The $4M seed round’s investors include Rabo Food and Agri Innovation Fund, UpWest, iAngels, Plug and Play, and J-Ventures.

BeeHero is still very much also working on R&D, exploring other crops, improved metrics, and partnerships with universities to use the hive data in academic studies. Expect to hear more as the market grows and the need for smart bee management starts sounding a little less weird and a lot more like a necessity for modern agriculture.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/28/beehero-smartens-up-hives-to-provide-pollination-as-a-service-with-4m-seed-round/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/

[un-enfant-immature]

BeeHero smartens up hives to provide ‘pollination as a service’ with $4M seed round

Vast monoculture farms outstripped the ability of bee populations to pollinate them naturally long ago, but the techniques that have arisen to fill that gap are neither precise nor modern. Israeli startup BeeHero aims to change that by treating hives both as living things and IoT devices, tracking health and pollination progress practically in real time. It just raised a $4 million seed round that should help expand its operations into U.S. agriculture.

Honeybees are used around the world to pollinate crops, and there has been growing demand for beekeepers who can provide lots of hives on short notice and move them wherever they need to be. But the process has been hamstrung by the threat of colony collapse, an increasingly common end to hives, often as the result of mite infestation.

Hives must be deployed and checked manually and regularly, entailing a great deal of labor by the beekeepers — it’s not something just anyone can do. They can only cover so much land over a given period, meaning a hive may go weeks between inspections — during which time it could have succumbed to colony collapse, perhaps dooming the acres it was intended to pollinate to a poor yield. It’s costly, time-consuming, and decidedly last-century.

So what’s the solution? As in so many other industries, it’s the so-called Internet of Things. But the way CEO and founder Omer Davidi explains it, it makes a lot of sense.

“This is a math game, a probabilistic game,” he said. “We’ve modeled the problem, and the main factors that affect it are, one, how do you get more efficient bees into the field, and two, what is the most efficient way to deploy them? ”

Normally this would be determined ahead of time and monitored with the aforementioned manual checks. But off-the-shelf sensors can provide a window into the behavior and condition of a hive, monitoring both health and efficiency. You might say it puts the API in apiculture.

“We collect temperature, humidity, sound, there’s an accelerometer. For pollination, we use pollen traps and computer vision to check the amount of pollen brought to the colony,” he said. “We combine this with microclimate stuff and other info, and the behaviors and patterns we see inside the hives correlate with other things. The stress level of the queen, for instance. We’ve tested this on thousands of hives; it’s almost like the bees are telling us, ‘we have a queen problem.’ ”

All this information goes straight to an online dashboard where trends can be assessed, dangerous conditions identified early, and plans made for things like replacing or shifting less or more efficient hives.

The company claims that its readings are within a few percentage points of ground truth measurements made by beekeepers, but of course it can be done instantly and from home, saving everyone a lot of time, hassle, and cost.

The results of better hive deployment and monitoring can be quite remarkable, though Davidi was quick to add that his company is building on a growing foundation of work in this increasingly important domain.

“We didn’t invent this process, it’s been researched for years by people much smarter than us. But we’ve seen increases in yield of 30-35 percent in soybeans, 70-100 percent in apples and cashews in South America,” he said. It may boggle the mind that such immense improvements can come from just better bee management, but the case studies they’ve run have borne it out. Even “self-pollinating” (i.e. by the wind or other measures) crops that don’t need pollinators show serious improvements.

The platform is more than a growth aid and labor saver. Colony collapse is killing honeybees at enormous rates, but if it can be detected early, it can be mitigated and the hive potentially saved. That’s hard to do when time from infection to collapse is a matter of days and you’re inspecting biweekly. BeeHero’s metrics can give early warning of mite infestations, giving beekeepers a head start on keeping their hives alive.

“We’ve seen cases where you can lower mortality by 20-25 percent,” said Davidi. “It’s good for the farmer to improve pollination, and it’s good for the beekeeper to lose less hives.”

That’s part of the company’s aim to provide value up and down the chain, not just a tool for beekeepers to check the temperatures of their hives. “Helping the bees is good, but it doesn’t solve the whole problem. You want to help whole operations,” Davidi said. The aim is “to provide insights rather than raw data: whether the queen is in danger, if the quality of the pollination is different.”

Other startups have similar ideas, but Davidi noted that they’re generally working on a smaller scale, some focused on hobbyists who want to monitor honey production, or small businesses looking to monitor a few dozen hives versus his company’s nearly twenty thousand. BeeHero aims for scale both with robust but off-the-shelf hardware to keep costs low, and by focusing on an increasingly tech-savvy agriculture sector here in the States.

Let’s save the bees with machine learning

“The reason we’re focused on the U.S. is the adoption of precision agriculture is very high in this market, and I must say it’s a huge market,” Davidi said. “80 percent of the world’s almonds are grown in California, so you have a small area where you can have a big impact.”

The $4M seed round’s investors include Rabo Food and Agri Innovation Fund, UpWest, iAngels, Plug and Play, and J-Ventures.

BeeHero is still very much also working on R&D, exploring other crops, improved metrics, and partnerships with universities to use the hive data in academic studies. Expect to hear more as the market grows and the need for smart bee management starts sounding a little less weird and a lot more like a necessity for modern agriculture.

[modern-beekeeping-using-iot]

Are ants and other insects bothering your beehive? Learn how to keep them all away

For successful hive monitoring, you must have devices to measure, track parameters that are of the hive. The information of the data is passed on through cloud-based services and IoT monitoring device. Gobuzzr has created a spectacular project -  the smart beehive monitoring system that combines AI and Internet-of-Things making the system compact, user friendly, and can be a valuable source for any apiarist in the beekeeping practice.

You can now use the beehive monitoring app to track the productivity of the bees, the weight of the hive, the location of the hive, and the health of the bees. The app allows the user to obtain all necessary data with a single touch and plan his work.

You now know that hive monitoring is possible through the app, now keeping ants and other insects away from the hive is also simple. Anything that connects the ground and the hive can become a pathway for the walking insects and ants to reach the hive; one method of preventing them is to use vegetable oil in and around the hive stand's leg. Click on this blog to learn more about various techniques and ideas for preventing them from affecting the beehive.

[kariot]

In-depth knowledge of the undiscovered bee world, including how beehive monitoring works and how it benefits honey bees in contemporary apiculture.