Hope for Vanishing Bee Colonies: High Tech Hive

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Jill OSB
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Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:56 pm

Hope for Vanishing Bee Colonies: High Tech Hive

Post by Jill OSB » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:58 pm

Open Tech Collaborative Launches Crowdfunding Campaign to Help Save Declining Bee Populations with “Smart” Hives
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/open-source-beehives

DESCRIPTION:
The world’s bees are in peril as environmental challenges and colony collapse disorder threaten to wipe out bee populations on multiple continents. Declining bee populations, in turn, threaten our entire agricultural system as these potent pollinators become scarcer each year.

Open Tech Collaborative (OTC) has developed a way to empower everyday citizens to fight back and save the bees – with an optimally designed manmade beehive whose schematics can be downloaded via the internet and precision-cut using a CNC router (computer controlled cutting machine.) The pieces are easily assembled without glues or screws, and create the perfect habitat for a backyard, rooftop or small farm bee colony.

OTC has launched a campaign on popular crowdfunding site Indiegogo that will enable their team to finish designing a plug-in sensor system for the beehives that will act similar to new “connected home” appliances. The system will record key measurements of colony health and upload them to a central data repository. There, beekeepers can keep tabs on their colonies and make any necessary environmental changes to keep them healthy. In the aggregate, the data will be available to researchers looking for the causes and ways to cure colony collapse disorder.

The OTC crowdfunding campaign offers premiums including pre-cut beehives in custom woods, and for the armchair bee enthusiasts, products like organic fair trade honey.

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