![Bees are critical to almond pollination. Photo courtesy of BeeHero. Bees are critical to almond pollination. Photo courtesy of BeeHero.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/5Q2j7ezUfQBfUJsaqK3gfB/e295a6a6-16fa-4379-8cd7-23fd87f8982d.jpg/r0_0_2134_1200_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A start-up business focusing on data-driven bee services believes its solutions will not only be able to aid with pollination but provide a critical early warning system in the event of problems within the hive such as Varroa mite.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Itai Kanot, BeeHero co-founder, said the business, which has recently expanded to Australia through a partnership with Monson's Honey and Pollination, said he believed the company's internet of things (IoT) based technology would have a natural fit in Australia.
Bees are big business across the nation, providing critical pollination services for valuable industries such as almonds, along with broadacre crops such as canola, while the honey sector is also a big earner.
Mr Kanot said the system provided apiarists with a system that allowed them to monitor their hives continuously.
He said the beekeepers would be able to monitor to check whether bees needed feeding or whether there was an issue within the hive.
"The key is being able to provide the beekeepers with the information earlier than they may have been able to observe it themselves," he said.
"This could have a big application if there is an incursion of something like Varroa mite, there is nothing specific within the system that identifies Varroa but beekeepers may pick up some of the key indices for hive health were not quite right and get an early start in managing the problem."
READ ALSO:
Varroa mite is the world's major bee pest.
Up until now Australia has managed to keep the pest out, however there have been incursions of the pest, including an outbreak a fortnight ago through NSW's Central West region.
Mr Kanot said the hardware behind the system was simply inexpensive IoT sensors that collected the information.
"The sensors collect a range of information on nine different metrics including temperature, humidity, sound and pressure among other measures."
"The real magic happens in having the system programmed to analyse what is happening in the hive from that data."
"We've done a lot of research to try and teach the machine how to identify exactly what is going on in the colony through trained algorithms."
He said an example could be when a hive became queenless and the bees behaved differently.
"Every apiarist will tell you its very easy to identify a hive without a queen, with the BeeHero program you can get the information delivered to you remotely, rather than only identifying the problem when you go out to check the hives."
"There are other patterns such as when they are making a lot of honey or when they want to swarm, we want to pick up on those patterns and translate that to beekeepers and predict what is happening a lot earlier."
"On average beekeepers feed their hives every three weeks so a lot can happen in that time."
Mr Kanot is spending a significant amount of time in Mildura, in north-west Victoria, home of one of Australia's major almond production regions working with Monson's during the critical almond pollination season.
"We are excited to combine our bee monitoring technology and precision pollination experience with Monson's unparalleled expertise in honey production and pollination services to lower the mortality rate and enhance the productivity of honeybee populations across Australia," he said.
He said results from North America had shown the value of the BeeHero technology.
"This year was a very bad year for bees, with mortality rates of 45pc over winter, but with BeeHero we were able to keep mortality rates 33pc lower."
He said he was intrigued to learn more about the Australian industry.
"As Beekeepers things similar but different between the US and Australia, your orchard size is a lot larger for one, while in Australia honey plays a bigger role, especially given you can collect honey virtually year round, compared to the US with a pollination focus."
Mr Kanot had some comforting words for Australian beekeepers regarding Varroa.
"Varroa is a thing that has been around over a decade, I remember it being a part of management since I was a kid, my message to the Aussie guys is that you learn to live with it."
"It is a very challenging thing, not just Varroa itself but the fact it acts as a vector for diseases, but there are different methods out there that allow you to at least mitigate the damage."
"If it does make its way to Australia beekeepers are going to learn to deal with it."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News