Bees are very hard working little creatures. If we did not have bees, our planet would've been a different place. And now Beekeeping is entering the world of technology.

I have alsways found Beekeeping very interesting and now a beekeeper from the South Coast of Natal, South Africa, has realised that things like Airbnb and Uber should not be the only areas of disruption and with the shortage of bees and honey, she is developing a Mobile and online app to take beekeeping to the next level :)

“Beedale is designed to help bee farmers keep very good and practical record of their hives, assist with tracking production, pests and diseases. It will also link both large and small farmers with commercial buyers. While the Beedale software is relevant for all hives, our Smart Hive innovation will send a message when a hive is ready for harvest and let farmers know that a buyer is ready to purchase at a fair price,” Worthman said.

This would make it possible for small farmers to get their product to food companies as there were many barriers to entry such as stringent labelling and barcode requirements and the need for professional branding to access supermarket shelves directly.

She plans to launch the innovations commercially in February 2018.

You can read the full news article here

Different types of bees

Worldwide, there are around 25,000 different types of bee species (around 4,000 in the U.S.). This huge number is divided into over 4,000 genera of bees, which are then further subdivided into just nine families of bees. The Apidae family is perhaps the most well-known family, with familiar members such as the honeybee, carpenter bee, and bumblebee.

All of these species dutifully serve as pollinators of our agricultural world. And they are all excellent at what they do. For example, all bees have stiff hairs and pockets on their legs, allowing them to collect more pollen and be more efficient transporters of it between plants. Not only that, bumblebees appear to be even more successful at pollinating certain crops due to their larger sizes and more vigorous vibrations. This helps to better disperse pollen amongst the flowers and fruits it visits.
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Why is bees so important part of nature

I recently had a conversation where we were discussing how important it is to use honey from the local area where you live as you should build up a resistance to allergies as per the statement below .

When a person eats local honey, they are thought to be ingesting local pollen. Over time, a person may become less-sensitive to this pollen. As a result, they may experience fewer seasonal allergy symptoms. It's true that bees pollinate flowers and make honey.
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Some facts about South African Bees

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Happy Steeming!

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