Non-invasive biomonitoring makes it possible to obtain real-time information on the health of bees, now also in Bee my Future's apiaries. It arrives in Italy thanks to Melixa, which tells us why it is so important.
The role of the beekeeper is fundamental to the wellbeing of communities and the natural environments on which they depend. Caring for bees means safeguarding biodiversity and food security: without the pollination carried out by these creatures, 71 of the 100 most important crops for feeding the world's population would be at risk. The UN has also wished to underline the importance of this issue by proclaiming 20 May World Bee Day. An innovative system makes it possible to monitor the activities of these insects, facilitating the work of beekeepers and gathering precious information on the health of the surrounding environment. The biomonitoring devices developed by the Trento-based startup Melixa are the first non-invasive ones available in Italy and are bringing the ancient tradition of beekeeping into its 2.0 dimension.
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Through internal and external temperature sensors, a scale that measures the weight of the hive and a Melixa-patented counter that records the number of bee flights, hobbyist and professional beekeepers as well as researchers can receive real-time data on the conditions of the apiary and consult it easily via an app. "The beekeeper can plan their activities with a wealth of information even when far from the apiary," explains Romano Nesler, president of the Federation of beekeeping associations of Trentino. For this reason, and to highlight the intrinsic link between the health of bees and that of nature, Melixa's biomonitoring system is being installed on two of Bee my Future's apiaries — the LifeGate project for the protection of bees in urban settings following organic principles, now entering its fourth edition. Luca Toldo, beekeeper and Melixa technician, explains to us how the Melixa system works and why it opens up new horizons.
Can you explain precisely what biomonitoring is?
Biomonitoring is a technique that makes it possible to monitor the environment and its degree of pollution through the study of certain particularly sensitive organisms. Bees are perfect for this purpose because a hive contains tens of thousands of them flying incessantly from flower to flower at distances of more than a kilometre, meaning they can come into contact with substances dispersed in the environment. Sensitive to pollutants (such as neonicotinoid pesticides, ed.), they are affected by contact with them and the colony does not develop normally. Melixa's aim, through its continuous measurements, is to gather the development parameters of the hive — such as flight activity, weight and internal temperature — which can give us precious information on the wellbeing and development of the bee colony. This data can therefore be used as a form of environmental monitoring.
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How did Melixa come about?
Melixa is an innovative startup based in Trento, founded in 2013 with the aim of revolutionising the way beekeeping is practised at a time of serious crisis in the sector. Climate change, pollution and the overuse of pesticides have brought Italian honey producers — and others — to their knees, with a sharp contraction in the quantity of honey produced. That is the immediate effect, but let us not forget that bees are responsible for the pollination process that enables food production: the bee crisis is therefore a problem that affects everyone. By combining engineering, the internet and a practice as ancient as beekeeping, we get Melixa — the first hi-tech hive that monitors the health of bees and the quality of their production.
Melixa is incubated by the business accelerator Industrio Ventures and supported by the Fondazione Edmund Mach and the European Union through the ERDF rural development call via Trentino Sviluppo and the autonomous province of Trento. In 2017, new business partners joined Melixa, among them Apicoltura Piana, a company based in Castel San Pietro Terme in the province of Bologna, which is at the top of the honey market. Thanks to the addition of different areas of expertise, Melixa can continue pursuing its goal of providing data collection and processing systems that harness innovative technologies capable of making beekeepers' work ever more efficient and effective.
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How do Melixa's devices work?
Professional apiary monitoring is made possible by two innovations. The first consists of a series of sensors placed on the hive. Two of them — the external temperature sensor and the rain sensor — provide environmental data. Three further sensors — the internal temperature sensor, the scale and the flight counter — provide information on the state of the colony. In particular, the flight counter sensor is essential for tracking the colony's development and identifying any anomalies such as die-offs or depopulation. The combination of all the data collected provides useful insights both for the study of bee biology and for monitoring and optimising production.
The second innovation is the use of the web to consult data through a simple application that can be downloaded on a PC, tablet or smartphone. The system is equipped with a GPS, useful for tracking movements in nomadic beekeeping and which can also act as an anti-theft device. All devices are powered by a battery recharged by integrated solar panels, making the system self-sufficient. Through the web interface, the beekeeper can consult data in real time, enabling them to carry out the necessary checks without disturbing the bees' normal activity and to be promptly alerted to potential alarm situations via notifications.
How does the Melixa system manage to be non-invasive for the bees?
Because it does not affect their activity — something we have verified in the field over years of work in collaboration with both beekeepers and research centres. It collects all data passively. It consists of two modules: the scale, which is placed beneath the hives, and the sensor module, which incorporates the innovative flight counter and is positioned in front of the hive entrance. The bees enter and exit through the openings without difficulty, and this makes it possible to monitor their activity. Not only is the system non-invasive, but it also reduces the beekeeper's visits, thereby lessening their own invasiveness on the bees' normal activity.
What is the purpose of biomonitoring?
Biomonitoring and environmental monitoring keep the quality of the environment in which we live under observation, enabling us to intervene should any anomalies be detected. Thanks to bees and the use of the Melixa system, we can monitor die-offs or anomalies in colony development that may indicate the presence of pollutants in the environment. Melixa is ready to take on the challenge of becoming a system adopted not only in Italy but scalable at an international level.
Can we expect non-invasive biomonitoring to become an increasingly common practice in beekeeping?
It is being used more and more as a complement to, or replacement for, certain chemical analyses — because a chemical analysis, to yield a correct result, must be carried out in the right place at the right time, and that is not always possible. Biomonitoring studies organisms that develop over time and are distributed across the environment; for this reason it can provide more comprehensive answers, and is therefore in some respects more effective and also more economical. A growing number of projects involve the use of bees as bioindicators. As much data as possible needs to be collected, and the Melixa system lends itself to this purpose: once switched on, it requires no intervention whatsoever — energy is supplied by the panels and data is transmitted automatically.
The real strength lies in the data collected by monitoring platforms distributed across a territory. We started in Trentino and have since expanded throughout Italy, and we plan to extend into Europe shortly. The system is ready to be used anywhere in the world — in fact, it is already being used by several foreign institutions and universities. And there are already many beekeepers using our system to collect data with the aim of defining a best practice for beekeeping 2.0, one that draws on innovative tools to address the critical challenges the beekeeping sector must face.