Ontario start-up Best for Bees takes Innovation Award at World Beekeeping Awards

An Ontario-based beekeeping tech start-up took home a silver medal at the World Beekeeping awards in Chile last month.

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Kitchener’s Best for Bees received the Innovation in Practical Beekeeping Award for its ProtectaBEE technology, an all-in-one adjustable hive entrance meant to protect hives. Small entrance and exit cones direct bees to walk through a fungal powder that combats threats such as varroa mite.

Why it matters: The new technology is designed to protect bees against varroa mites and other threats.

The World Beekeeping Awards are organized by Apimonda, the world’s largest bee congress. It brings together more than 3,800 people from 50 or more countries.

Best for Bees founder and CEO Erica Shelley said she thought the novelty of ProtectaBEE contributed to its recognition.

“One of the things that they’re really looking for is innovation, so something that has not been seen before,” she said.

“Our device, the way it just easily fits on the front of a beehive (is) very practical. It does so many different things for beekeepers. We originally invented it for bee vectoring to bring fungal powders into a beehive for the management of varroa mites.

“That was how it started but because of the way that we designed it, we have different inserts that will allow a beekeeper to direct traffic or keep out pests and predators throughout an entire beekeeping season.”

ProtectaBEE is the result of a joint research project conducted in 2020 with University of Guelph professor Peter Kevan.

He taught an introductory apiculture course for many years and was working on bee vectoring technology aimed at protecting against crop diseases and pests.

“That went ahead quite nicely, but I had always thought that would be a way to use the same technology to deliver biological control agents and medicaments and other beneficials into the hive by using the bees themselves as the carriers,” said Kevan.

“That’s when I started working in a more or less intensive way with Erica. I’d done some work earlier than that, as had a few other people, but the problems were making it efficient, simple and quick.”

After connecting, Kevan and Shelley pooled their expertise.

“She had a lot of experience in bees and beekeeping, but not so much in biological control and those sorts of issues that are so useful now in agricultural production,” Kevan explained.

“So, it was a sort of a synergy that developed over a number of conversations. Erica’s refinements of the apparatus really made … the whole technology, or the principles of the technology, sing and made it possible for people to use the technology quickly, simply, easily and cheaply.”

Shelley said she thinks Best for Bees’ technology is especially important now, amid the challenges facing bees and beekeepers.

“Because bees are threatened by, you know, changes in weather, but also predators and of course the varroa mites and different pests and diseases that can be spread by other bees, protecting the hive is integral to keeping those hives healthy.”

She noted high death losses in Canadian and American beehives in recent years, some as high as 50 per cent. Such losses would be alarming in any other agricultural sector.

“If you were a dairy farmer and you told somebody you lost half of your dairy cows, people will be like, ‘Why are you even in that industry?’” said Shelley.

“It’s a very hard industry to be a beekeeper when losses are so high, so anything that offers extra protection, improves the population of your hive and also makes it easier and quicker … results in possible better outcomes for beekeepers.”

Shelley said she enjoyed seeing so many beekeepers from around the world in one location while in Chile.

“Beekeepers in general … are just really excited about what they’re doing, passionate and collaborative.

“The world’s leading researchers were there and so it was just an incredible experience, to just be in that environment with people who are so passionate about what they do.”

In a press release, Shelley said Best for Bees is developing several new products to integrate with the ProtectaBEE to continue improving honeybee survival rates.

She told Farmtario that the company is working on more fungal powders for treatment of varroa mites, as well as monitors that will allow more data to be gathered from beehives.