Talk Title: Measuring Honey Bee Health using Robots
Hear how an old beekeeping technique for observing hive health inspired the development of an autonomous bee health monitor, and the discovery of bee activity patterns directly tied to the colony and queen’s health.
With over three years of bee activity data and video measured every 3 minutes, eyesonhives is now the worlds largest bee dataset, and has been used to discover bee flight activity patterns including swarming, queenlessness, robbing and more.
Join us to hear the project’s milestones, how you can get involved and measure your own hive’s data, and become a citizen scientist helping bees.
Host: Sonoma County Beekeepers Association
Date: August 14th, 7pm.
Location: Sonoma County 4-H Center facility, 6445 Commerce Boulevard, Rohnert Park
There are 400 beekeepers in the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association, and monthly meetings normally have an attendance of 100 – 200 people.
There will be a “pre-meeting” with cookies and tea that starts around 6:15 p.m., where beginning beekeepers can ask questions, the Gardening group sells plants for pollinators, and people who make woodenware and provide consulting services can make connections to members.
There’s a General meeting with club details from about 7-7:30 or so and then the talk (30-45 minutes, plus additional time for questions). People also check out the tables after the talk, up to the time when we need to dismantle the chairs to be out of there by 9 p.m.
Full details available on the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association website: https://www.sonomabees.org/general-meeting/
A third generation beekeeper, Kelton left rural Australia to become a medical robotics engineer, earning degrees in Physics and Engineering from the University of Sydney. Kelton is a primary or co-inventor on 11 patents covering mobile and robotic telemedicine, technology in broad use now helping doctors treat patients remotely.
Kelton founded the Eyesonhives project with a team of engineers and data scientists, with the goal of developing a simple metric for honeybee health, and accelerating the transition to sustainable agriculture.
When not developing a new algorithm, prototyping a robot, or sharing the buzz about eyesonhives, he’s found tending his backyard organic garden and bee hives, and serves as a volunteer and Board member of the Santa Barbara Beekeepers Association.
About the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association
Our goal is to increase interest in and knowledge of bees and beekeeping for the hobby beekeeper and the general public.
The SCBA supports and encourages sustainable beekeeping practices. As a community we learn and share our knowledge of the honey bee and all beekeeping methodologies, without discrimination or judgment.
We advocate protecting the bee’s habitat and the planting of pollinator friendly flowers, trees, shrubs and cover crops to provide pollen and nectar for all bee and pollinator species.
We are mindful that the use of many pesticides, chemicals and treatments are detrimental to bee health and long term species sustainability.
As an association we provide a public service not only of caring for precious pollinators but of educating the public through school presentations and at public events. We maintain a Swarm List of beekeepers ready to collect bees that have left their hive in search of a new home and settled in a less than ideal place.