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High-tech beekeeping benefits Baltimore honey

October 11th, 2018 10:05 PM

By Southern Star Team

Gearoid MacEoin with Dr Murphy Edwards.

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A Baltimore honey farm is among the first to benefit from new technology to help beekeepers manage their hives and prevent the loss of bees. 

A BALTIMORE honey farm is among the first to benefit from new technology to help beekeepers manage their hives and prevent the loss of bees. 

Gearoid MacEoin of MacEoin Honey Farms at Creagh, Baltimore, is one of the first stops on a  global roll-out programme, which will see a specially designed unit installed in 200 hives across Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, South Africa, and Romania in the coming months. 

Beekeeping has been facing many serious issues in the last decade. Since the late 1990s, a variety of hive problems, honey bee diseases and pests have devastated beehives around the world. Beekeepers manage 91 million beehives worldwide, and they are in trouble.  

Gearoid MacEoin said: ‘We are delighted to be part of this exciting project and are looking forward to learning how this new technology can help with our beekeeping.’ 

This technology by Cork start-up ApisProtect will provide valuable information to beekeepers about their colonies including the condition and activities of their bees. 

This is possible through machine learning techniques, which extract meaningful information from the raw data sent from their hives. 

With this information, beekeepers will gain an understanding of whether their colonies are thriving, and receive insights about problems, which may emerge in their hives. Dr Fiona Edwards Murphy, ApisProtect’s CEO and co-founder, has developed this technology to help beekeepers reduce losses and increase productivity.

‘For the last 20 to 30 years, bees have been facing problems that they never experienced before in history, our technology is helping the beekeeper apply the knowledge that they already have, but in a much more effective and controlled manner,’ said Dr Edwards Murphy.

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