An app that hinders CCD

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WHAT IS CCD?

CCD, or colony collapse disorder, is an issue among honeybees where the worker bees vanish mysteriously, leaving the rest of the colony to fend for themselves. This has caused over 10 million beehives to be lost in just the six years leading up to 2013. Though scientists have not pinpointed an exact cause of this growing problem, many think that it may be a result of various factors such as diseases, malnutrition, harmful pesticides, a slight change in beekeeping practices, etc.

CCD was first noticed around 2006 and 2007 when many beekeepers found that there was an unusually high amount of bees (30-90%) dying in their colonies. In 2008, it was also discovered that the number of beehives had dropped by 1.1 million since 1989, a shocking drop in data. Though this number has climbed its way back to 2.7 million, CCD is still a concern when it comes to the extinction of honeybees.

Honeybees pollinate over 75% of the plants that humans consume worldwide, so if they ever go extinct, we would be left starving. Though there are no "prevention methods," per se, there are steps that beekeepers can take in order to slow down CCD. For example, beekeepers can record data about the bees every time they check on them. Over time, if they notice an abnormal shift in this data, they can tell that something is wrong, and examine the issue. So, we have designed an app that will help carry out that function, and hopefully, it will contain the malignant effects of CCD. We also plan on incorporating a Raspberry Pi into our solution, which is a single-board computer that can be programmed for various functions. To learn more about our idea and download our app, please click here.