Friday, January 26, 2018
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
What's New?
Summer in Review
Recording Mite Counts in HiveTracks
This past summer, HiveTracks introduced Mite Count reporting as a new feature enabling users to collect mite infestation data and visualize varroa infestations in their honey bee colonies.
To participate, first, evaluate the level of mites (number of mites per 100 bees) using standardized protocol. Then, enter the data from each hive into your HiveTracks account using the Mite Count feature. When you enter your mite load data you will have the option to opt-in to share your data with MiteCheck (www.mitecheck.com), which is an ongoing mite monitoring effort provided by the Bee Informed Partnership. If you opt-in, you can then visit the MiteCheck site to see varroa levels in your region on a map. Be sure to check that site frequently to see the county level infestation levels during this critical beekeeping month. The published information will not identify individual participants.
Inspecting Your Hives Using the Healthy Colony Checklist
In collaboration with Dick Rogers, entomologist, apiologist and research manager for Bayer's North American Bee Health program, we've added the Healthy Colony Checklist to HiveTracks, a quick, six-item standardized set of guidelines for beekeepers to follow when inspecting hives. Rogers, creator of the Healthy Colony Checklist, explains, "To efficiently and effectively protect and improve colony health, it is now essential to monitor colonies more frequently, even as often as weekly. A method for weekly colony assessments needs to be easy to use, fast, thorough, and yield observations that are meaningful and easy to interpret for practical management decision making by apiarists, apiculturists, and apiologists."
To use the Healthy Colony Checklist, simply login to your HiveTracks account, navigate to your Hives page, and click the Healthy Colony Checklist link under the Most Recent Inspection column.
Questions about any of the new features? Want to know more about our research efforts? Email us at support@hivetracks.com or visit us at www.hivetracks.com.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Apimondia 2017
APIMONDIA 2017
Apimondia is an annual beekeeping conference where beekeepers from around the world have been gathering for 120 years for the sharing of beekeeping knowledge and information. This year’s event was held in Istanbul, Turkey and our HiveTracks was in attendance with a stand at the exposition.
Over the course of the six-day conference, HiveTracks' CEO James Wilkes and son Sullivan Wilkes held software demonstrations. Midway through the week, James Wilkes gave a presentation about HiveTracks Commercial, the company's newest apiary management software for commercial operations. The crowd of beekeeping amateurs, clubs, scientists and professionals were engaged and left excited about our newest development. A 20-minute Q & A session rounded out James' presentation.
During the event we also spoke to a number of of potential partners and commercial operations. We estimate that we spoke to people from over 20 countries! A well-rounded trip left our team excited and with a lot of new ideas.... and a lot of work! Exciting times ahead for HiveTracks. 🙂
Want to learn about HiveTracks Commercial? Visit our official HiveTracks Commercial website HERE and sign up for a demo today!
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Latest News
Buzzin' in Beantown
August 28, 2017 - The Hive Tracks team recently traveled to Boston, Massachusetts to attend Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) 2017, while stopping by their local beekeeping friends at Follow the Honey.
The annual AMCIS meeting brings together more than 1000 attendees, every year. The weekend-long conference consists of research paper presentations, panel discussions, and keynotes on all the latest research and innovation in computer information systems.
This year, Hive Tracks' Dr. Joe Cazier presented his research on building a standardized data platform for beekeepers.
This project aims to set up a data analytics platform that allows for the consistent and reliable data collection of both human interventive and natural order data across commercial and backyard beekeepers that will allow for the applicaiton of advanced data analytics techniques.
These Big Data analytical techniques applied to data from across multiple locations, crops and forage locations will allow for the analysis and understanding of relationships in beekeeping and agriculture. To learn more about this project and other Hive Tracks research efforts, please visit https://hivetracks.com/research.php.
While in the area, Hive Tracks' stopped by their friends at Follow the Honey - a Cambridge based bee product business who travel the world to bring "transparency of source" raw honey and bee-inspired offerings to their customers. To learn about Follow the Honey's products and offerings, and read about their most recent travel stories, visit http:/www.followthehoney.com/.
Be sure to tune in for our next blog post, where we'll be discussing beekeeper Sullivan Wilkes' recent travels to commercial beekeeping operations around North America.
References
Wilkes, J., Cazier, J., Moody, G. "Electronic Data Collection and Sensor Integration for Data Aggregation, Best Management Practices Data Mining and Smart Hive Development" March 1, 2016
Friday, August 11, 2017
Healthy Colony Checklist
Simplifying Inspections to Maximize Results
Background
Apiculture and the global bee population have seen an ever increasing variety of threats over the past 10 years. Although current bee populations in the US have recovered following several years of significant colony losses, the annual losses continue to be above a sustainable level. Significant resources are required for restoring populations, especially from commercial beekeepers. Though it is widely debated, causes of the colony losses may include, but are not limited to: pathogens, varroa mites, management practices that fail to adapt to changing conditions, irresponsible chemical use in the hive and its surrounding environment, genetically modified crops, and changes in global temperature (Ellis, 2007).
Ever since the unusual conditions of collapsing hives during the winter of 2006, beekeepers and researchers alike have been searching for answers and a better understanding of the factors affecting honey bee mortality.
The Significance
Though questions remain and unusual occurrences continue to surface, research and experience both support the notion that a measurable reduction in colony losses can be achieved through management practices that are within the control of the beekeeper. A recent study from 2014-2015 by the Bee Informed Partnership (BIP), which collects survey data and correlates for annual losses, found summer colony losses eclipsed winter losses for commercial beekeepers, which disagrees with the usual trend of loss (Steinhauer, et al., 2015).
BIP looks for correlations between management practices and colony loss and has found significant differences in losses for several common management practices, such as the use of varroa
Below is a summary of total overwintering colony losses in the United States across eleven years of conducting the winter loss survey and across six years of conducting the summer annual loss survey. (BeeInformed.org, 2017)
The Opportunity
In addition to the issue of declining bee populations, beekeepers and growers of pollinated crops struggle to know the best courses of action to optimize productivity for their bees and crops. Beekeepers and pollination dependent farmers need the knowledge to better manage their colonies and crops to optimize both the economic return by understanding the true cost of beekeeping and the best management practices to better understand the efficacy and impact of various management practices.
Simplifying Inspections to Maximize Results
"To efficiently and effectively protect and improve colony ations that are meaningful and easy to interpret for practical management decision making by apiarists, apiculturists apiologists
Rogers suggests that the three questions you need answered by the end of a quick colony inspection, are:
Rogers suggests that the three questions you need answered by the end of a quick colony inspection, are:
1. Is the colony healthy?
2. If not, why?
3. What needs to be done to fix the
2. If not, why?
3. What needs to be don
Expanding on this simple high level description which captures the basics of a healthy colony, Rogers (2017) details six major indicators or inspection items that largely describe the prese nt state o f a hive, which he coined as the "Healthy Colony Checklist".
The framework proposed by Rogers in the Healthy Colony Checklist provides the infrastructure for a standardized set of guidelines for beekeepers to follow when inspecting hives.
Using the Healthy Colony Checklist
You can now find the Healthy Colony Checklist in your Hive Tracks account. Simply login
Your inspection findings will result in a percentage score based on the answers given
Citations
Blog, May 25 2017 •. "20162017 Loss Results: Thank You to All Survey Participants!" 20162017 Loss Results: Thank You to All Survey Participants! Bee Informed Partnership, 25 May 2017. Web. 08 June
Ellis, James. (2007). Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in Honey Bees. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in720
Rogers, R. (2017). Healthy Colony Checklist.
Steinhaue
Wilkes, J., Cazier, J., Moody, G. "Electronic Data Collection and Sensor Integration for Data Aggregation, Best Management Practices, Data Mining and Smart Hive Development" Project Apis m Healthy Hives 2020 Grant Proposal. March 1, 2016.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
"Smarter Hives, Healthier Bees" Webinar
"Smarter Hives, Healthier Bees" Webinar
Joseph Cazier, Ph.D. and Ed Hassler, Ph.D. of the Center for Analytics Research and Education, Appalachian State University, and James Wilkes, Ph.D., Computer Science Department, Appalachian State University, and Founder, HiveTracks.com, will discuss advancements in the use of technology-assisted data collection at the honey bee colony level to assist beekeepers in making wise hive management decisions.
You can watch the full webinar HERE (registration required).
We hope you enjoy!
The Hive Tracks Team
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Hive Tracks News
Hive Tracks News
May 31, 2017
In collaboration with Bee Culture Magazine, Hive Tracks will be presenting a live webinar entitled “Smarter Hives, Healthier Bees” on Fri, June 23, 2017 @ Noon Eastern as part of the Healthy Hives 2020 Webinar Series. Register using the link below.
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