Do you keep bees? Have you noticed a decline in how many bees you have? That seems to be the norm around the world. The loss of honeybees may be due to a number of factors, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Micro-sensing Technologies Science Leader Paulo de Souza told Mashable.
In attempt to understand the honey bee decline and to possibly combat it, the Global Initiative for Honey Bee Health project was started. Led by CSIRO, the project “aims to protect and improve the health of honeybees, ensure sustainable production of crops dependent on honey bee pollination, and increase productivity through coordinated management of pollination.”
The project will consist of equipping thousands of honeybees in Australia with radio frequency identification (RFID) micro-sensors, Mashable reports. In other words, these bees will be wearing high-tech backpacks.
“It works like an e-tag or a license plate on a car,” de Souza told Mashable. “Each bee will have a specific code … and we can follow when the bee leaves the hive and returns.”
Once the sensors are on the bees, they should remain for the duration of the bee’s life.
In addition to the sensors, beehives will be equipped with technology that will send data back to scientists. The goal, according to Mashable, is for 1,000 hives to have this technology and 2.5 million bees to have the sensors worldwide within a year’s time.
