Beekeeper Max Kane, who lives hundreds of kilometers from where bees pollinate his almond orchards in northwestern Victoria, uses innovative technology to improve the health of his bees. can be monitored.

Joel Kuperholz has worked on two technology projects designed to support the bee industry.

The first was the Purple Hive project, which uses cameras and artificial intelligence to monitor bees entering and exiting hives.

“So we’re taking multiple pictures from multiple angles of every bee that comes and goes, and going through every photo of the Varroa destructor or Varroa jacobsoni along the way. That’s the biosecurity system,” he said.

Kuperholz’s company, Vimana Tech, has also developed a system that uses smart internet-connected sensors placed inside the beehive.

It has a stamp of approval from Max Kane’s brother Ian, a retired beekeeper.

“Via the app, you can see bee activity per hive,” he said.

Ian said it will change the way beekeepers manage and operate their hives remotely.

“It is very reassuring to know exactly what is going on in each hive. And I don’t have to go through a truckload of 150 hives. You can go to specific hives that you know,” he says. He said.

Currently, to check for varroa mites, beekeepers collect samples of 300 bees and give them a sugar shake or alcohol wash.

It’s possible to uncap drones and breeding cells to look for parasites, but that’s all manual and time-consuming work.

According to Kuperholz, the Purple Hive Project took 20 photos of each bee entering and exiting the hive and combined this with artificial intelligence.

When something is detected, an alert is sent to the beekeeper.

Millions of dollars are being spent to eradicate varroa mite from New South Wales, but Kuperholz said the government is not helping to fund the new technology.

“We’re not flashy. We’re ultimately short on resources,” he said.