Bees pollinate about 30% of total global food supply, but they’ve come under threat in recent decades.
“The overall abundance of pollinators is thought to have declined in the UK since the 1970s. For example, managed honeybee hives in England declined by 50% between 1985 and 2005,” reports the UK’s Royal Society of Biology.
Which is why I loved discovering and reading about Beewise. They’ve produced the world’s first robotic, solar-powered, commercial-scale beehives. The device houses 24 bee colonies, and allows beekeepers to remotely manage and treat their hives. This leads to increased bee health, improved honey yields, and improved pollination.
I’ve always enjoyed watching beehives—either at the museum behind the glass perspex, or when visiting friends who have had them—but it’s always felt like a time intensive, dangerous, and very manual activity.
So what I love about this product is that the solution feels so obviously good.
Here’s hoping its unit economics per bee hive mean that large agricultural businesses, as well as governments, can one day adopt it at scale for the pollination of crops and other natural environments.