Enabling the beekeeping community to care for bees by harnessing the power of Open Design, DIY technology and Citizen Science
What. The Bee Lab project aims to use the power of technology and Open Design to enhance the practice of beekeeping making it easier for beekeepers to care for bees in today’s unpredictable environmental landscape. Using the principles of Open Design, we are bringing together a community of passionate, multidisciplinary people to create customisable monitoring devices that enable beekeepers to actively monitor and share the health of their bees across the beekeeping community.
Why. Honey bees are an essential environmental pollinator. They contribute everyday to our environment, food supply and our economy. However, the practice of caring for bees has become increasingly complicated over the past 15 years, uncertain climate, sprawling cities, weather diversity, GM crops and disease management have made life difficult for bees and beekeepers in both urban and rural settings. We believe that by harnessing the sense of community instilled in the beekeeping world and empowering them with appropriate technologies, we can help beekeepers enhance care for their bees.
How. Technologists, product designers and engineers are working together with beekeepers to co-create customisable, monitoring devices. Using Open Design methods, the device designs will be published online free to be used and ‘hacked’ by anyone. Data gathered from these devices will be made public to help others understand the health of their local environment, informing sustainable and bee-friendly approaches.
Whether you are… a beekeeper, a passionate bee enthusiast and advocate, a technologist, designer, hacker or a curious member of the public ... who wants to get involved in the Bee Lab project…
The multidisciplinary team includes: The British Beekeeping Association (bbka.org.uk), The Honey Club (honeyclub.org), Technology Will Save Us (technologywillsaveus.org), Designer/researcher Rob Phillips and Horizon Digital Economy (horizon.ac.uk)
* This work was supported by RCUK through the Horizon Digital Economy Research grant (EP/G065802/1)
