As the damaging effects of the climate crisis compound across the globe, bees have become one of the most afflicted insects. Between October 2018 and April 2019, 40% of the United States’ honeybee colonies died, the highest winter loss in more than a decade.
As the world’s primary pollinators, bees play a crucial role in the global food supply chain and their loss could trigger a devastating collapse of Earth’s many ecosystems.
BeeHero, a California-based startup that originated in Israel, is seeking to change the pollination game by employing an array of hi-tech methods to help manage and protect beehives, including artificial intelligence programs that can game out the future health of colonies and make adjustments to keep them healthy.
Through its precision pollination technology, the company now works alongside beekeepers across the US to maintain the wellbeing of hives while attempting to promote a more sustainable food supply chain.
Omer Davidi, Beehero’s CEO, co-founded the company when he noticed the beekeeping industry becoming increasingly industrialized, which had a detrimental impact on bees’ ability to survive varying physical environments.
“Once [the industry] becomes more and more industrialized, you have tons of acres of the same crop in the same location. It does not leave enough possibilities for insects to survive in this environment and farmers become more dependent on bringing physical hives into the fields,” Davidi said.
In addition to climate change, stressors such as an increasing lack of foraging area have pushed beekeepers to move hives from one place to another, spreading diseases and infections.
“I think the situation in the US is the worst because you have such long distances and you move hives all the time. It becomes very stressful to maintain beehives today because the entire food supply chain depends on them. I don’t think colony collapse disorder is the biggest problem. I think the biggest problem is that … the disorder makes the profitability of beekeepers almost zero. The margins are so low,” Davidi said.
“If the beekeeping process could not be made more profitable, then we will no longer have beekeepers to maintain bees. And without them, we’re not going to have bees,” he added.
As a result, BeeHero launched smart hives, using a mix of data analytics and artificial intelligence. Through nine different sensors, including GPS, the algorithm tracks 30 distinct colony metrics and can predict hundreds of different scenarios in each hive.
Metrics include sound, temperature, humidity, magnetic field, as well as patterns that detect queen health, mite infestation, disease onset, brood frame count and hive theft.
“By being able to identify the problems early enough and guiding the beekeepers to go and fix it, you save a lot of colonies,” said Davidi.
One of the company’s initial challenges was figuring out how to communicate most effectively and quickly with beekeepers when they needed to act immediately on problems in their hives. BeeHero’s solution was to send notifications via simple text messages and emails.
“We use less sexy notifications such as SMS and emails, you know, things that Silicon Valley startups would never want to do as they usually want their notifications on the app. But if these methods work and would get beekeepers out there to fix the problem, that’s what we care about,” Davidi said.
The company’s vetting process includes selecting beekeepers who are genuinely committed to addressing hive problems and are motivated to adopt a more data-driven approach to the business. Two and half years after its entry into the US market, BeeHero now works with five of the top 20 beekeepers in the country, as well as other medium-sized beekeepers.
Larry Johnson, an Idaho-based beekeeper and owner of K&L Honey, has worked with BeeHero for the past three years. The 52-year-old, who has been in the beekeeping industry for 32 years, was first introduced to the company through a California-based pollination broker in 2019.
During the initial trial process last spring, Johnson used 200 of BeeHero’s sensors. This year, the sensors are in approximately 3,000 of his colonies.
“We’re getting information that we normally wouldn’t be able to have at our fingertips. I can access that information on a platform on my phone … It gives me information that I would normally have to drive out for and physically inspect the hives,” Johnson said.
On some mornings, Johnson would receive an alert about declining hives. He would then adjust his schedule and go to the exact hive, check on the bees and make sure the queens are OK. Because the sensors can detect whether hives are queenless, Johnson would then determine if he needs to carry new queens and requeen hives.
BeeHero has gained significant traction across the country. This month, the company secured $19m in fresh funding to increase its end-to-end services for large food growing operations as it seeks to become the largest pollination provider in the country.
Yet, there are still some challenges, including skepticism from farmers and beekeepers.
“Every day, [these beekeepers] see companies that promise to increase their yields and it’s a question of overpromising and underdelivering … So, we meet with people, we show them our demonstrations. We want to convince them that we’re not just talking out there and that we can actually provide value,” said Davidi.