3Bee: the made in Italy project that will save bees

The bees. Many of us find them annoying, but above all dangerous because of their painful stings. However, these small yellow and black insects are the pillars of the planetary ecosystem. According to experts, their extinction would cause a chain reaction that would lead to the disappearance of other forms of life. Including the man. But from today these insects will be able to count on the 3Bee, an invention of the young Riccardo Balzaretti.

3Bee: the hive 3.0 saves bees

Riccardo Balzaretti's idea was to create a hive where the bees are constantly monitored with state-of-the-art tools. Follow the honey production step by step and take care of the little workers inside it in case of adversity. And 3Bee is just that: a hi-tech beehive with multiple functions.
How 3Bee works is relatively simple. Several sensors will detect a series of useful information to understand the health of the entire hive. This information can be shared by scientists, beekeepers and anyone who wants to protect bees. In this way it will be possible to guarantee the safety of the hive and its production.
Balzaretti's project, created with the collaboration of Niccolò Calandri and Elia Nipoti, will see light in December with a crowdfunding campaign, but has already captured the attention of many. The Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition Foundation has in fact included 3Bee among the best 10 ideas in the world on food and sustainability.

The importance of bees

But why is 3Bee so important? Because it safeguards an endangered species like bees. In recent decades, due to pollution, these small workers are slowly disappearing. Only in Italy honey production has dropped by 50% in the last 20 years, while in China 95% of bees have disappeared following the economic (and therefore industrial) boom.
Contrary to what one might think, the function of bees is not just to produce sweet honey. The pollination process guarantees the reproduction of over 80% of plant species. Biodiversity in nature therefore depends on the activity of bees. Suffice it to say that their work, according to estimates, makes the agricultural world a figure close to 22 billion euros. The same world that is slowly killing them due to the various insecticides used.
All that remains is to hope for the work of scientists such as Balzaretti and the 3Bee, the hi-tech hive.