Beewise and Bee Hive Automation with CEO Saar Safar (S4, E18)

Imagine a completely automated beekeeping operation. Well, BeeWise has created the Bee Home, housing 24 colonies that is a solar powered, insulated, and completely automated for every beekeeping management task. Saar Safar, our guest today, was approached by a beekeeper that had a rough idea of what he wanted, and Saar put his own skills at mechanical and digital automation to work and BeeWise came to be.

The Bee Home is totally self-contained and requires almost no beekeeper assistance. There are 24 colonies in each unit, 12 colonies on each side of the bee home that open to the outside. Inside the bee home box there is a space between the two sides that a robot occupies. It can move from front to back, and it can inspect each of the hives from inside. It removes a frame, examines its condition relative to brood, disease, food and more, and sends the data to the cloud where a beekeeper can make appropriate management decisions.

Annual losses in the Beewise bee homes are less than 10%, which is a real plus. Labor costs to manage and supply food for the robot to feed colonies, or remove the extracted honey are minute when compared to traveling to remote beeyards, having to examine each hive and then managing it for survival. The costs are evolving, but at this time there is no initial upfront purchase cost. Then $400/month for each unit containing 24 colonies. That’s $200/year for each colony with essentially no labor costs and less than 10% annual loss. Almond pollination will pay the rent, and the honey made is only a plus, along with the many extra bees available to split and sell.

They’ve been at this for several years, improving and adding features and testing these units, and thousands of colonies have been managed in them, and it seems they have it down. Take a look at the web page and see for yourself. BeeWise. Completely automated beekeeping.

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

• Beewise - https://beewise.ag
• Marla Spivak on Wait What, "How The Bees Saved Me" - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-bees-saved-me-by-dr-marla-spivak/id1472106563?i=1000538436515
• Bee Blower - https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/33287174447
• Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! 

We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com

We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum.

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Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott

Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC