Bees are vital to our planet and our survival. In fact,
almost 90% of wild plants, and 75% of global crops need animals to pollinate
them which works out to approximately one in every three mouthfuls of our food
depends on bees! To add to this, the global market value of honey is
predicted to be worth the US $11.16 billion (€9.54 billion) by 2027 which is a
tasty-looking market for beekeepers around the world!
However, like every industry, honey production is not
without its challenges: dwindling bee populations; rising demand for honey;
extreme weather conditions. In this case, study says Aliaksandr Kuushynau, head
of Wialon at Gurtam, explores the problems faced by one company in the space,
and how it adopted cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) and global positioning
systems (GPS) tracking technology to protect its bee population.
The challenge
Chilean-based Colmenares El Refugio is a client of Geotrace
SpA and is actively involved in the production of honey, through the
pollination of plants and trees by bees. Up until this point, the inability to
check and control the temperature and humidity inside beehives without ruining
the microclimate in the hive had already led Colmenares El Refugio to the loss
of 50 hives, which at US$4,000 (€3419.02) per beehive, plus a loss of US$11,000
(€9402.30) in future production, was an unwelcome expense not to mention, the
devastating loss of the animals’ lives.
In addition to this, every time a hive was struck with a
serious disease, the company was forced to eliminate all the affected bee
families again, a serious challenge in terms of bee wellbeing. And in terms of
theft, the company has also incurred the loss of 100 beehives at a cost of
US$23,000 (€19659.36).
These challenges threatened both the bees’ wellbeing and
population, and the bottom line of Colmenares El Refugio. The race was on to
find a solution…
GPS tracking and IoT platform Wialon provided Colmenares El
Refugio with software to address the three specific challenges it had been
facing, outlined above.
These were:
- Proactively preventing and controlling beehive diseases.
- Preventing the unauthorized movements of beehives.
- Reducing the risk of beehive thefts.
A sweet solution
Colmenares El Refugio’s solution came by way of a partnership; combining Geotrace, which offers a solution called HiveTrace that controls the temperature and humidity inside beehives, with Wialon, which collects the data in its cloud-based monitoring system. By monitoring the parameters of temperature and humidity via sensors embedded within trackers in each hive, bees can be kept healthy at a consistent climate.
The solution also monitors the beehives’ location and any
movement. This provides the beekeepers with up-to-date information on where the
beehives are, via data, which is recorded every two hours and presented in
Wialon’s platform, in the form of maps, charts and graphs.
The project encompassed four key phases. In the first phase,
Geotrace collected its customer’s requirements, analyzed them, and decided on
the best IoT device for the job. Then in the second phase, beekeeping
specialists started recording the temperature and humidity values from the
installed IoT devices to build a picture of the optimal climate.
The next phase was the testing phase; conducting walkthrough
assessments with the NimbeLink asset tracker, to test the connectivity and
feedback. And the final phase, and stage of the project, featured tests in
functional beehives in order to examine the data reception within Wialon.
Unlike other IoT-based projects especially those in the
agriculture industry, all parties had to deal with the uncommon condition that
Geotrace had to be non-invasive and have as minimal interference as possible
into the life of the beehive and its daily pollination and honey-making
operation. As a result of this condition, specialists had to define the best
hours to complete the installations, as well as the best time weather-wise, for
the bees. The challenge of finding the optimal place to install the device on
each beehive also had to be addressed, sensitively, with the bees in mind.
Buzzing with the result
By implementing IoT and GPS tracking to help monitor the
location and enhance the well-being of the beehives and their inhabitants,
Colmenares El Refugio has reported no thefts, increased cost savings, and
improved welfare of the bees through the prevention of bee-related epidemics.
Bee-happy: The future
Looking to the future, Colmenares El Refugio is planning an
upgrade to the solution which will enable beekeepers to also count their bees.
This data will provide the beekeepers with an understanding of the health of
the hive, as well as improve pollination and optimization around honey
making.
Ref:
https://www.iot-now.com/2021/09/27/113335-how-iot-has-enabled-the-monitoring-of-bees-in-chile-an-agritech-case-study/