Pollen Patrollers Brings the Fight to Colony Collapse Disorder

Globally, beekeeping supports millions of livelihoods through honey, wax, propolis, and pollination services. Bees not only provide honey; they are also irreplaceable as pollinators of many agricultural and horticultural plants.

Bees are the unsung heroes of our food systems. Roughly 75% of the world’s food crops rely, at least in part, on pollinators like bees, butterflies, and bats. Bees handle the lion’s share, pollinating about one-third of everything we eat, from coffee and avocados to apples and beans. They are essential to food security, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of thousands of smallholder farmers.

In Kenya, beekeeping is a traditional source of income, especially for rural smallholders. Honey is high in demand, and a study found that a ten-hive enterprise can generate earnings comparable to cultivating about 0.86 hectares of maize.

However, bee colonies are declining in Kenya and around the globe. Some of this decline is associated with “colony collapse disorder," an abnormal phenomenon where worker bees abandon a hive, leaving the queen and brood behind. The disorder is ascribed to a mix of factors — pesticides, parasites, and stress — but its exact cause is still unknown.

Margaret Wanjiku is a Kenyan agripreneur helping beekeepers combat colony collapse. Her startup, Pollen Patrollers, designs smart hive kits equipped with sensors that monitor hive temperature, humidity, weight, and bee activity in real-time. This data helps beekeepers anticipate and prevent colony collapse before it happens.

As a child, Wanjiku lived with beekeeping grandparents in rural Murang’a. Later, working as an extension officer in Kajiado, she noted that the smallholder beekeepers didn’t routinely check their hives, leading to significant losses.

The Smart Hive kit is a small, internet-connected, and solar-powered device that offers real-time, remote monitoring of beehives. It is inserted under the roof of the beehive, where it tracks environmental conditions and hive activity. The sensor data is processed and analyzed at Kenyatta University Innovation Center before it is sent back to the beekeeper. Beekeepers receive SMS alerts if conditions become unfavorable.

The kits are leased to farmers for $2 per month. The company also offers precise pollination services at $10 per acre of farmland. The company says it has helped over 3,200 farmers and beekeepers improve crop yields and honey production.

Pollen Patrollers is a small, 11-person company. Its kits are priced affordably, but connectivity remains an issue in rural Kenya, where many lack reliable cellular coverage. Undaunted, the team plans to scale operations and increase device adoption across Kenya over the next three years.

Wanjiku says they are the first company to develop a remote hive monitoring solution in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Bees are the world’s most essential agricultural allies, and protecting them strengthens food security.

Interested in building your own custom hive monitoring system? You might be inspired by these Hackster projects: The Busy Bee, Polytech Sorbonne Beehive monitoring, and B-NAHL Hive Monitor.