Now here’s something exciting for all beekeepers out there, myself included! I’ve kept my eye on Open Source Beehives and their BuzzBox beehive sensor project, and now they’re finally on Kickstarter. Check out their campaign here.
What is it?
BuzzBox sensors help you track hive health from your smartphone. Buy one or support citizen science & open data to save the honey bees!
Sounds pretty amazing, right? The solar-powered BuzzBox monitors the hive’s internal and external temperature and humidity, and barometric pressure. But what excites me is the realtime colony audio analysis that enables automatic hive health updates. What does this mean exactly?
Their team of data scientists have built a system that can automatically tell you how your bees are doing based on input from the kit’s microphone, and you’ll get updates on your smart phone in real time.
I’m into my second season as a beekeeper, and to be honest I worry and wonder quite often about what’s going on in the hive. Are they doing ok? Are they about to swarm? Do they have a queen? The BuzzBox can answer all of these questions by analyzing the sound of the bee colony. Not only that, data from every BuzzBox will be collected into an open source database where it will be analyzed and shared with the world, with hopes of learning more about what’s killing off bees around the world.
To wrap up, check out the BuzzBox Kickstarter-campaign and if you’re a beekeeper or just want to support the important work that Open Source Beehives is doing, consider giving them your support! I know I will.
