We're Crowdfunding for our bee hive monitoring programme!

We are going to the Crowd (www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/future-bee) to help us raise money for our project to utilise available newly technology, and data analytics, to half the number of inspections needed for colonies, in order to reduce disruption, improve bee health and cut our carbon footprint. 

Outcomes:

We expect to be able to at least half the number of colony inspections needed each year by understanding what is happening within hive remotely.  Traditionally beehives need to be inspected weekly during the season so that the colony is managed for food, space, disease and swarming.  We expect to use data to determine feeding/additional space needs, and to detect hives likely to swarm. Reducing the inspections for those factors will help improve the risk of disease. 

Hive Monitoring:

We would like each hive to have internal monitor, recording the temperature, humidy and sound frequency.  A sample of hives in each Apiary will also have an external monitor measuring the hive weight and the external temperature and humidity.  The data is captured every 15 minutes and transmitted centrally. 

Data usage:

The data will be built up over time.  In the first instance hives exhibiting anomalies such as low temperatures/low weights can be checked.  A winter check for example is principally to check the weight of stores and that the hive is still bee tight. This will be able to be seen remotely.   As the project develops we will be able to see patterns and actively plan the requires for each apiary in advance.   Ultimately we expect to be able to combine with additional data such as weather forecasts to predict which hives are likely to have problems and focus efforts on those.

It is said that each time a hive is opened the bees are set back three days,  given the need for weekly inspections to monitor swarming, it can quickly be seen how much the beekeeper disturbs the bees.  

Why do we need help?

Ben's Berkshire Bees is very much a hobby that is out of hand.  It has never made a profit with the honey sales and experiences covering the cost of running the bees.  It costs about £45 for internal monitors and £110 for the external - the cost rapidly adds up! 

We have even had our first supporter which is super exciting!