Precision apiculture (PA) or precision beekeeping is a technology and data driven approach to managing honey bees. Any experienced beekeeper will express there are no shortcuts when looking after honey bees but emerging technologies may offer increased efficiencies to modernize management practices. This week’s blog will give an overview of some existing technologies and a window into the possible future of beekeeping.
Precision Apiculture
Reports in the media, and online, suggest that technologies,
like artificial intelligence (AI), are invading every aspect of business and
personal lives. How AI could reshape the overall workplace may be an important
topic generally but how technological advancements could change beekeeping is
worth discussing on this platform. Beekeeping
practitioners are cautious to embrace new technologies. The barriers to implementation may be
economic, as new technologies are expensive, and the practical applications
need clear demonstration. For these
reasons there has not been widespread adoption of emerging technology but there
are a few enthusiastic early adopters.
Smart sensors and data collection can measure a range of
hive parameters. Hive scales have long
been used for measuring hive weights.
This is a useful metric to monitor changes in foraging activity, hive
populations and honey production. The
numbers can support decisions on feeding and winter preparation. This could be one of the most basic and
useful application of technology to support decision making.
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Figure 1 Hivetronics® mobile hive weighting tool with
smart phone data display. Temperature and humidity are a reflection of colony activity and hive environment. There are probes available for monitoring both of these factors. This provides beekeepers insight into colony population, queen performance, swarm activities and winter clustering. The data alone will need interpretation by the beekeepers or more complex systems to interpret the meaning of the data. |
Other sensors are available to measure CO2 and volatile
organic compounds (VOC) in the hive. Assessing CO2 may indicate
changes in colony populations, winter clustering and ventilation. The VOC may indicate certain chemicals that
are present or entering the hive. Those
produced in the hive may show changes in honey bee health and pathogen
presence. They can also detect other substances,
such as pollutants or agrochemicals to which the colony is exposed 1. VOC may even be useful in identifying queen
status in the hive 2.
The movement of bees in and out of a colony indicate the colony population and the pollination / foraging activity from that hive. There are different sensors that can be applied to a beehive to measure the activity of the colony. Technologies available to measure honey bee activity include Doppler radar, videography, acoustics and accelerometry 3.
Packaging the sensor technologies into systems has been done by a range of companies. These products can display the outputs on a dashboard as show in the figure. The data from sensors are recorded but also can be transmitted in real time. This is an important consideration in the use of this technology. Recording of data is sufficient for future interpretation and analysis. If immediate decision making and intervention is needed, then having data transmitted is important.
Figure 2 Example of dashboard display of hive monitoring
technologies. Left to right, From the
3Bee® APP (https://www.3bee.com/en/), Colmenio®
(https://www.colmenio.com/en).
The incorporation of these technologies into beekeeping
practices may be the first step towards using AI and robotics to replace
beekeepers. It is unlikely that
apiculture jobs will be lost to new technologies in the immediate future, but it
is interesting to get an indication of where advancements may take the industry. There are claims made by some companies that
AI and robotics can replace some beekeeping activities. Time will demonstrate the proof of this
concept and it seems very futuristic. First
steps, there are opportunities for beekeepers to incorporate advancing
technologies into their honey bee management.
The practicalities and economics must make sense, and the validation of these
tools will come with use. The aim of PA is
to increase efficiencies, improve honey bee health, minimize resource
allocation. Incorporating sensing
technologies into every hives is currently unrealistic but sampling representative
hives using these tools could be immediately useful. Pragmatism is a trait
found with most beekeepers and when it makes sense to use these technologies,
they will be included into our beekeeping toolbox.
1. 1. Ilić, D., Brkić, B. and Sekulić, M.T., 2024.
Biomonitoring: Developing a beehive air volatiles profile as an indicator of
environmental contamination using a sustainable in-field technique.
Sustainability, 16(5), p.1713.
2. 2. Fleay, B., 2019. Smells Like Queen Spirit:
Identifying queen presence in a honey bee hive through volatile organic
compounds (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Western Australia).
3. 3. Bencsik, M., Le Conte, Y., Reyes, M., Pioz, M.,
Whittaker, D., Crauser, D., Simon Delso, N. and Newton, M.I., 2015. Honeybee
colony vibrational measurements to highlight the brood cycle. PloS one, 10(11),
p.e0141926.
Connecting with ATTTA Specialists
If you’d like to connect with ATTTA specialists or learn more about our program, you can:
visit our website at: https://www.perennia.ca/portfolio-items/honey-bees/
Email: attta@perennia.ca
