Thanks to the BBC News for featuring our story today highlighting how technology can reduce honey bee losses.
“Beekeeping is one of the oldest industries in existence, but it faces numerous threats. A number of tech firms hope to help the honey bee have a brighter future. “
This article highlights how companies like Best Bees in Boston and ApisProtect here in Ireland, are using technology to direct beekeepers to the hives that need their attention.
Why are bees so important?
1.4 billion farming jobs and three-quarters of the world’s food supply – about $577bn a year – depend on the pollination of crops
And of the 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world’s population, 70 are pollinated by domesticated and wild bees
Bernd Debusmann Jr – BBC News
” One firm also at the forefront of the honey bee industry is Irish business ApisProtect, which makes wireless in-hive sensors that collect and transmit data to a website-based “dashboard“.
“We collect temperature, humidity, sound and acceleration [of the bees flying out of the hive] data,” says chief executive Fiona Edwards Murphy.
“What we do is extract those raw data points and then use machine learning to convert that into useful information. We tell the beekeeper, for example, which hives are growing and which hives are shrinking, or which hives are alive and which hives are dead.”
You can learn more about our commercial and hobbyist monitors, we are now taking pre orders for our hobbyist monitors from the UK.
With the global honey industry worth an estimated $9.2bn (£6.5bn) in 2020, there is also a significant commercial imperative behind the increased use of technology to monitor and look after bees.
BERND DEBUSMANN JR – BBC NEWS