Beekeepers in China's high-tech¹ powerhouse of Zhejiang Province have developed a smart way of using intelligent beehives to revolutionize bee farming.

 

科技大省浙江的蜂农研发出一套智能蜂房，推动了养蜂业的发展。
 

 

Over 300 apiculture insiders and experts convened² in Chun'an County on Saturday to witness the pilot.

 

More than 2,600 artificial beehives have been arranged in mountains in the western outskirts³ of Hangzhou, the provincial⁴ capital.

 

Chen Pinghua, chair of Qiandao Lake Mozhidao Biotechnology Co. Ltd., which operates the bee farm, said the smart hives were installed with sensors⁵ at the bottom, which can monitor and regulate the temperature and humidity and send the data on the number of times the bees enter and leave as well as the weight of the hive for technicians to determine whether the honey has matured.

 

Each hive is also pasted with a unique QR code that traces the source of the honey to ensure food safety, Chen said.

 

He said staff could open an app on their mobile phones to monitor the real-time data of each hive, which greatly improves efficiency.

 

Saturday coincided with World Honey Bee Day designated by the United Nations in 2017 to spread awareness⁶ on the significance of bees, which pollinate one-third of the world's grain-producing plants.

 

"Beekeeping has a long history in China, but it has remained as a very low-end business without standards for hives and on how bees are raised and how honey is harvested," said Yang Yibo, deputy secretary-general of the Eco-Apiculture Committee of the China Association for the Promotion⁷ of Quality.

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