HiveTech Solutions, LLC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase II: 8.2

Description

The demand for pollination services from honeybees is expected to increase from 1.7 to 2.5 million colonies by 2027. However, beekeepers are continuing to see an average of 40% losses each year. Most of these losses occur during winter, before the almond bloom in February. Varroa mites continue to be the biggest problem for beekeepers. Dozens of products are on the market, yet with variation in beekeeping practices, even treated colonies see a massive spike in mites during the fall.Our Phase 1 results indicate that controlled-climate indoor overwintering may be a solution to the Varroa mite problem. Specifically, we developed a scalable mobile indoor climate-controlled apiary (MICA) for overwintering. We found that honeybee colonies that were overwintered in our MICA were significantly more likely to survive the winter than colonies we left outside.In this Phase 2 proposal, we will develop a commercial scale MICA to prepare for market adoption. Our teamwill construct and optimize our MICA using colony and facility monitoring, and partner with beekeepers to test, scale, and optimize our overwintering protocol to bring this solution set to market.This project has three primary goals : 1) Decrease winter hive losses to 15% 2) Increase the number of colonies making grade for pollination services; 3) Reduce mite loads due to decreased migration. Our solution set has the promise to improve the health of bees and provide food security for hundreds of millions of people.