BEES are a vital part of the global ecology, and one North East company is on the frontline in the fight to protect them.

County Durham firm, Arnia, produces cutting edge beehive monitoring equipment that can track and record bee health and behaviour, before sending it to beekeepers.

The firm, which only started in 2010, is working across the globe with governments, universities, farmers and beekeepers to protect bees, and combat disease and invasive species which are all a threat to worldwide bee numbers.

Arnia has received the backing of the Department for International Trade, that helped fund a trip to the International Bee Research Conference, which led to the company working in New Zealand.

“Bees are everywhere and essential to world food production, so protecting them and making sure they have the correct environment to thrive is essential across the globe,” said Arnia Commercial Director, George Clouston, who is also a beekeeper himself.

“We are exporting our hive monitors to around 30 new markets, including New Zealand, Australia, China, the US and Canada, but we are also working with a number of organisations to help stop the decline of bee species.

“We’re collaborating with technology and beekeeping partners in Spain, Belgium and Greece to develop next generation hive monitoring technology as part of an EC funded research project called IoBee.”

Arnia’s technology allows hives to be monitored from anywhere in the world, on any device at any time and also delivers alerts if anything changes within colonies. As well as helping maintain strong, productive and healthy bee colonies, it provides an insight to life inside a hive.

Hives are fitted with scales, thermometers and numerous other sensors with data transmitted wirelessly to a central Gateway unit in the apiary.

The firm also shares data and knowledge from its global network of monitored hives, which it continuously analyses to identify new health or behaviour signatures.

George added: “The more hives we monitor, the more we learn about bees. Our knowledge base provides example data, articles, videos and hints and tips about how to get the most from hive monitoring.

“We also provide “Bee Bulletins” detailing life inside the hive and articles from around the world describing the latest research into bee health and behaviour. We have been monitoring bees since 2009 and have systems in almost 30 countries to keep us at the forefront of hive monitoring technology.”

The monitors also mean beekeepers can learn more about their bees while disturbing them less. A unique combination of sensors and powerful analytics helping to keep track of Queen mating flights, swarms, the impact of weather on the colony, hive damage, colony strength and development and nectar flow and dearth.

Data is collected via “The Gateway” from all hives in an apiary and sent to Arnia for analysis. It is organised and presented in a user interface that can be accessed from any internet enabled device.

Arnia was origonally founded by electronics expert Huw Evans and his wife Sandra in 2010, and together they have helped grow the business to six employees, including a cutting-edge R&D department.

“The DIT support has been invaluable to us to explore overseas markets and help build our global network,” said George. “We’re working with almond farmers in California who ship in around 1.5m hives once a year to pollinate almond trees, bee farmers who may have up to 40,000 hives in Australia and hobby beekeepers who maybe have just a couple of hives, but it is all helping us gain data and better understand and monitor the health of bee colonies across the world.”

At the moment, Arnia is retro-fitting most of its clients’ hives, to install the system, but George and Huw are focused on developing hives with the monitors already installed and also plan to create technology that can be mass-produced, driving down costs for customers.

Julie Underwood, International Trade Director, said: “Arnia is not only a regional success story, it is also helping to change the world and educate people about the importance of this incredible creature to global ecology.

“It is incredibly exciting that this world-leading innovation is being developed right here in the North East and I am proud that we have been able to help the company carry its message overseas, while opening up some lucrative markets for their incredible products.”