Looking to re-establish healthy bee populations, entrepreneurs have taken the task to help bees through innovation. Companies around the world have developed beehive monitors able to track bees’ health, an important tool allowing beekeepers access clear data about their bees. However, there is still much potential to be exploited.
By applying technology to beehives, entrepreneurs are not only helping beekeepers take care of their bees but are also helping protect the environment. Researchers consider bees as ‘the canary in the coal mine’. If something’s wrong in the environment, bees are directly affected and thus give a quick warning of an existing issue.
That is why there is much potential for environmental protection in beehive monitoring. Ongoing improvements such as better monitoring, cheaper and more accessible products, and a spirit for a 2.0 beekeeping, are expanding possibilities. IoBee is working to lead the way in these developments through cutting-edge technology and information availability.
Helping beekeepers one by one is already a valuable milestone for not only IoBee but for all beehive monitors manufacturers, who do so by providing monitoring capabilities. But IoBee is working to open up the possibility of an interconnected network of bee-related data. Real-time shared information coming from beekeepers throughout Europe can be one of the most valuable tools researchers, policy-makers and beekeepers themselves can have.
By collecting and processing information related to bees’ health, beekeepers can keep their bees safe; researchers can better assess the environment’s quality, and policy-makers can make better decisions towards helping bees and the environment.
The addition of the internet to beehive monitoring may result in not only reliable information to beekeepers but also in the democratisation of information that has never before been so easily available. We now have the chance to unveil a world of secrets just by listening closely to bees, who have the special ability to let us know when the environment’s quality is at risk.