The Open Source Beehives Project

Open Source Beehives Project

The Open Source Beehives Project is a network of citizen scientists tracking bee decline. We used sensor enhanced beehives and data science to study honeybee colonies throughout the world. All of our technology and methods, from the hive and sensor kit designs to the data, are documented and made openly available for anyone to use.

The primary goal is to determine the cause(s) of bee decline, to identify potential solutions and to encourage networks of concerned citizens to study and redress the issue through the use of digital technologies in fabrication and information. The project is founded on the belief that open source innovation is the most direct way to address our global problems, and therefore, the software, hardware, data and methodologies used by it are the perpetual property of the public domain.

Stage 1: The Hives

Over the past two years, a distributed team of developers have produced two open source beehive designed, the Colorado Top Bar and the Barcelona Warré. Either hive can be freely downloaded, installed to a CNC router machine and cut from a standard 4×8 sheet of material, such as plywood. The fabricated pieces are flat-packable and slot together without the need for screws or glues. Both hives have been designed around natural beekeeping methods to lower stress factors on the colony, minimise exposure to artificial materials, and allow the bees more control over their living environment.

All of our designs use an open source license (CC-BY-SA) so anyone can download, improve and change them to fit their particular needs. The only rule is that you share these new designs under the same open license so that anyone can use and improve them. You can download a hive and build one yourself, or buy one from us and all of the money received goes towards supporting the Open Source Beehives Project.

Stage 2: The Sensors & Data

The Open Source Beehives project is developing a sensor kit that will allow users to monitor bee colony information and upload the data to the online repository called the Smart Citizen platform. All generated data will be viewable and downloadable by anyone. Accurately monitoring a superorganism such as a bee colony is complicated, so we are releasing versions of our sensor kit on an iterative basis. The first Alpha Kit is being developed with audio, temperature, infrared and humidity sensors. Later versions will include VOC sensors to monitor for foreign chemicals, scales to monitor honey production, and web cameras to give visual information about the colony.

Our sensors are being developed by a distributed team of collaborators. If you have skills in electronics or programming and are interested in helping develop our sensor kit, please contact [email protected].