Building a Business Analytics Platform For Enhancing Commercial Beekeepers' Performance

This project demonstrates progress in building a comprehensive data platform that records data for better management of beehives. The collection and analysis of this data will allow for the application of advanced data analytics techniques that will lead to a better understanding and evaluation of the economic and best management practices for commercial beekeepers and growers of pollinated crops. This paper describes the process through which data was collected from hobbyist, sideliner, and commercial beekeepers in the form of inspection and checklist forms that are currently being used to perform hive inspections across the US. Recruiting a community of “citizen scientists” to input hive health data from inspections creates a database of best management practices that can be used universally in monitoring hive health. In standardizing the data gained from beekeepers, we can gather best management practices to enhance the solvency of technology in improving hive health.