B Honey: Purple Hive Project

The global bee industry is under threat from a small yet devastating parasite, the Varroa Mite, which is decimating bee colonies around the world and is a leading cause of colony collapse disorder.

Currently Australia is the only inhabited continent on earth without Varroa Mite, and to keep it that way the Australian Government invests millions of dollars into a manual, time consuming monitoring at high risk ports around the country.

So to launch Bega B Honey and futureproof the industry, Bega created The Purple Hive Project, a solar powered beehive chain that uses A.I computer vision to detect Varroa Mite incursions without the need for manual checks.

The hive works by scanning each individual bee that enters, millions at a time. The algorithm can tell the difference between a healthy bee and a bee carrying the microscopic Varroa Mite. If a mite is found an alert is sent to the relevant authority and the outbreak can be immediately quarantined.