Co-Creating with the Bees
In Herman's words...
I became a hobbyist beekeeper almost 10 years ago. With the help of family and friends I set up this apiary in the Foothills south of Calgary. It’s an idyllic setting beside a pond surrounded by long grass and poplar trees. You can see moose, deer and even bears. The only sounds you are bird songs and frogs croaking and for many years, there were bees buzzing around these hives.
We’ve had as many as 20 hives here but most years the hive numbers vary from 7 to 10. Summers are always pleasant but winters here can get fiercely cold and the snow gets very deep by the side of the pond. I always take care to prepare my hives through winter. I fed them sugar syrup in the fall, treated for Varroa mites, checked for diseases and wrapped the hives tightly with insulated tarps tied with binder twine. For many years, my winter preparations paid off. Most of my hives would survive in the spring and would become strong honey producers over the summers. That changed dramatically a couple of years ago when despite my careful preparations all my hives died. That winter almost 50% of the honey bees in Canada died. Hundreds of thousands of beehives, millions of bees did not survive in the Spring. It was a devastating year for beekeepers across Canada and hasn’t got much better since then.
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The thing about beekeeping is that it hasn’t changed in over 150 years. That spring I decided to stop keeping bees in a traditional way. Over the past few years I’ve been talking to researchers and experienced beekeepers. I’ve been looking internationally for new solutions thinking a lot about technology and how it could be applied to beekeeping. There’s no easy answer but my research has led me to develop an idea I’m calling the Bee Cube™. The Bee Cube™ will house multiple beehives in a temperature controlled environment. Beekeepers will be able to check on conditions of their hives remotely and make management choices based on realtime information. The Bee Cube™ will protect the bees from extreme weather brought about by climate change. Bees will have a more ideal environment to enable them to do what they do best; pollinate crops and make honey.
Thanks for taking the time to watch this video. If you’d like to know how you can help us build the Bee Cube™ or get involved in any way feel free to reach out through our website and I’ll be happy to send you more information.