The world’s only varroa finding app
The bee friendly and time saving alternative
instead of alcohol wash and sugar shake. Find and count varroa mites and brood disorder, bd, instantly with your mobile camera – without hurting your bees.
Simply photograph your bees on the brood frame
Our AI analyses your images for varroa and sick brood and gives you a result. A fast and easy way to understand infestation levels and take control of your hives.
- Right now there are more than 17000 BeeScanning users worldwide.
- Last year our beekeepers found over 236 000 varroa mites in 140 000 hives.
- The BeeScanning method have saved more than 43 million bees from alcohol wash.
- 43 million bees weigh in at just over 4.7 tonnes – or 11000 pounds!
When Should I analyze for Varroa?
It’s crucial to understand varroa mite infestation levels and we suggest that you analyze at least once a month or every other week over the entire season. Our studies suggest huge variations among hives in the same apiary. If you examine all your hives on a regular basis, you will detect the ones that need help as well as stronger colonies that may be of interest for breeding.
Varroa destructor is a major cause for bee mortality, but they also transmit mortal viruses. With high mite levels there is a high risk that your bees are dealing not just with varroa, but also with several diseases. If you control the varroa mite population you will get healthier bees, and healthy bees equals more honey. BeeScanning also detects brood disorders and will alert you to take proper action.
BROOD DISORDER
Detect brood problems with your phone
BeeScanning instantly identifies brood problems in your hives. Our AI is trained to detect signs of American Foul Brood, European Foul Brood, Bald Brood, Chalk Brood, Chilled Brood, and Sack Brood. We call these defects ”Brood disorder”, and they will show in the analysis result as ”bd”. We also include de-capping, a behavior where bees chew holes in the brood cells or open the capping entirely to prepare for removal of infested brood.
Problems with brood in your hives can be an even stronger health warning than varroa. Brood problems often originate from viruses or mites, parasitic mite syndrome (pms), but can also have other causes such as bacteria, fungi, nutrient deficiencies, toxins, or wrong temperature. When the app indicates defective cells, a more thorough investigation is recommended.
American foulbrood
European foulbrood
Chalk brood
Sac brood
Chilled brood
Parasitic mite syndrome
Uncapping behaviour
Bald brood wax larvae
(Emily Scott)
How it works
01
Start the app, create an apiary and a hive and press “Analyze”. Photograph your bees on the comb. Don’t photograph the entire comb with just one picture – instead take 4 pictures for each side, 8 in total, depending on comb size. Hold your camera steady and focused at around 8 inches or 21 cm from the bees.
02
When you have taken your images. Press top right, green OK, that will save them. Scroll down and press “Analyze”. Uploading will start and AI will start analysing the content. The process is indicated by a turning wheel. Results will arrive in seconds one after the other. You may start to examine the result by tapping an image and zoom in. If you have weak reception, wait analysing until you get a better signal.
03
The result is calculated in percent. The number of varroa versus the number of bees. We use a factor to compensate for hidden varroa. The factor is a result of extensive research where we have compared our analysis with alcohol washing and found a correlation between visible and hidden mites. There are a specific number of hidden mites for every one found.
BEE MANAGEMENT
Healthy hives is a healthy business!
Features editing hive strength and temperament has been suspended awaiting developing a complete management setup. Please view active and planned App Flow here.
Out now, BeeScanning Healthy Hives
Features: Edit breed of bees, Queen ID. Analyse brood disorder and varroa infestation. Global varroa heat map, see infestation levels in your region, export data.
Next:
1. AI-extention
Features: DWV, Queen and number of bees analysed in image collection.
2. Management
Features: Bee strength, temper, note harvest and feeding, added design apiary / place hive functionality, task notifications and season timeline, new treatment advise section.
3. Social data collection
Features: The Social Bee – understand what is going on in your region, Beekeepers in your area are harvesting or treating etcetera, new statistics and history functionality.
