Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on November 21, 2013
Will Open Source Beehives Solve Colony Collapse?
Last year, a third of honeybee colonies in the United States quite literally vanished. Commercial honey operations, previously abuzz with many thousands of bees, fell suddenly silent, leaving scientists and beekeepers alike scratching their heads. The reasons remain mostly a mystery, but the trend has a name: Colony Collapse DisorderĶ¾ a disturbing development drying up beehives throughout the industrialized world.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to the problem than simply running out of honey. Bees are one of the most abundant pollinators in the natural world and are especially important for 1/3 of popular food crops that humans consume. They are the unsung, unpaid facilitators of human agricultural practices, and have been for as long as we have sewn seeds. Their disappearance would spell disaster for our food supply with some estimating our species lasting only four years on this planet without them.
Popular crops pollinated by bees
So, what can be done? This is a question organizations Open Tech Forever and Fab Lab Barcelona have been wrestling with. Their answer is a collaborative effort called Open Source Beehives. From the partnership, two beehive designs have blossomed that can be freely downloaded, ‘printed’, and filled with innovative sensors to log and track bee colony health. The team is currently looking for collaborators to help expand their efforts.
To learn more, watch the videos below, read their open letter to collaborators and get updates on Facebook and Twitter. To start participating, join the forum on their website and contact tristan@opentechforever.com.
6 Comments on "Will Open Source Beehives Solve Colony Collapse?"
Roman on Thu, 21st Nov 2013 3:06 am
1/3 WTF. Calories? Who did the math? I don’t see any staples in the picture. Are bumble bees and butterflies also collapsing? Unnatural helpless plants dependent on fake helpless bees what could go wrong?
Plant more grains and potatoes or stop feeding fat people.
BillT on Thu, 21st Nov 2013 7:37 am
Certain plants are pollinated by only one or two species of bee or other pollinator. It takes hundreds of insect species to keep the world we know alive. They have evolved together for millions of years. And will die together.
Perhaps if we shut down Monsanto and the other big ag corporations and stopped killing everything we too might survive. As goes the ecosystem, so goes man.
Ignorance and stupidity are killing the world that we need to live. Potatoes and grains will NOT keep us alive, Roman. Not even close. They do not have the many minerals and vitamins we need. Carbs and proteins will NOT do it alone. Please get educated, then comment. Carbs are fat producers and promote diabetes among other problems. That is why being a 100% vegetarian is impossible.
Kenz300 on Thu, 21st Nov 2013 1:50 pm
Bees are the canary in the coal mine for the human race……….
We are slowly poisoning ourselves with all the pesticides, fertilizers and modified crops………
Pesticide use needs to be radically reduced…….
rollin on Thu, 21st Nov 2013 5:16 pm
The reason is not a mystery at all, it has been directly related to ag chemicals. Providing a new coffin for the bees that must eat toxic pollen is no the answer.
I find it amazing that so little has been done to save a species that is energetically and economically tied to human viability. What ever happened to self interest?
Roman on Fri, 22nd Nov 2013 4:03 am
Yeah, I know. Most of calories grown are for animal feed anyway. I’m for permaculture of no fuss plants.
Roman on Fri, 22nd Nov 2013 4:06 am
Also you can survive on 95% potato diet for many years. Unfortunately they need a lot of chemicals these days