Honeybees have a huge role to play in pollinating flowering plants. They pollinate 80 percent of all flowering plants. Without pollinators like them, humans wouldn’t have food to grow and eat.
Monoculture, pesticide use, and climate change are contributing factors to the declining bee population.
Among the companies that have introduced innovative solutions to help preserve honeybee colonies is a California-based startup called BeeHero.
Their recently launched gadget called ‘Smart Hives’ has been getting a lot of interest in the U.S. The device is made up of small sensors that will be attached to the inside of the hive.
Sound, temperature, humidity, magnetic field, disease onset, brood frame count, queen health, and hive theft may all be tracked by honey farmers through Smart Hives.
The beekeepers will receive updates on colony health via text message and email, enabling them to get notified when there’s a problem so they can employ better hive management.
Smart Hives have helped reduce hive mortality by 20 to 25 percent based on the data presented by Omer Davidi, BeeHero founder.
Aside from Smart Hives, there are many technologies seeking to combat pollinator loss, which, hopefully, would be made available to the global market soon.
For instance, in Europe, there are robotic dancing bees that usher real bees towards nectar and pollen that needs pollination or harvesting. In Australia, an agri-tech company also introduced artificial pollination machines that help almond growers pollinate their crops without bees.