Turning the Art of Beekeeping into a Science of Prevention
Each spring in North Carolina’s foothills, beekeepers lift the lids of their hives and listen for the familiar hum that signals life. But too often, that sound has fallen silent. For decades, beekeepers across the country have watched their colonies vanish—victims of a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. “Bees are small creatures with an outsized impact,” said Dr. Rahman Tashakkori, Lowe’s Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Appalachian State University. “When we lose 30 to 50 percent of our hives each year, we’re not just losing honey. We’re putting our food system at risk.”
Honeybees pollinate more than one-third of the crops that feed us—from almonds to apples—contributing an estimated $1.1 billion in honey sales annually in the U.S. alone. Yet despite their economic and ecological importance, the reasons behind these massive losses have remained elusive. “Beekeepers are often flying blind,” Tashakkori explained. “By the time they realize something is wrong, the hive is already gone.” That mystery—and the urgent need for early detection—inspired the creation of Beemon, a breakthrough project led by Tashakkori and his team at Appalachian State.
For generations, beekeeping has been guided by intuition and tradition. “You lift the hive to feel its weight, listen for the buzz, and take a quick look inside,” Tashakkori said. “It’s an art—but it’s not a science.” That art is now under siege. Modern threats like new pathogens, changing climates, and pervasive pesticides have outpaced conventional monitoring. “In today’s world,” he continued, “intuition alone isn’t enough. Beekeepers need real-time insights to act before disaster strikes.” Beemon is answering that call by turning observation into intelligence—shifting beekeeping from reactive guesswork to proactive, data-driven hive management.
Beemon’s technology acts like a central nervous system for the hive, continuously tracking the colony’s health through an integrated network of sensors. “Our system listens, watches, and measures what’s happening inside the hive,” Tashakkori said. “It captures the subtle rhythms of the colony—the hum, the movement, the temperature, the weight—and translates them into a real-time data stream.” What makes Beemon revolutionary is its intelligence layer. The Beemon System Core Intelligence uses advanced AI to interpret the hive’s behavior rather than simply record it. “We’ve built a kind of universal translator for bee health,” he explained. “We don’t just collect data—we understand it.”
The system can now pick up on the small changes that often precede a crisis. A sudden rise in drone activity may indicate that the hive has lost its queen. A drop in internal temperature can point to a looming collapse. Even subtle variations in the hive’s acoustic signature can signal that a swarm might be imminent. “Those kinds of insights turn reaction into prevention,” Tashakkori said. “That’s how we move from losing colonies every year to protecting them—and the food supply they sustain.”
Before NCInnovation funding, Beemon’s breakthrough lived primarily in the lab. “We had proof of concept, but not the means to deploy it,” Tashakkori said. “The NCInnovation grant changed that.” The funding allowed the team to hire full-time researchers, bring in student collaborators, and move from prototype to market-ready platform. “We’re now developing a product that works for hobbyists and small commercial beekeepers—the people who make up the majority of the 100,000 beekeepers in the U.S.,” he said. Mentorship from NCInnovation’s Entrepreneurs in Residence, an UNC MBA intern, and industry experts from NC IDEA and RIoT accelerated the team’s business strategy and helped them avoid common startup pitfalls. “They gave us the commercial playbook,” he noted. “Now we’re building real partnerships, not just running experiments.”
For Tashakkori, the Beemon project represents something bigger than technology—it’s about ensuring that innovation reaches the people and places that need it most. “Rural beekeepers are the front line of our agricultural system,” he said. “They pollinate the crops that feed us and sustain local economies. Too often, university research never makes it into their hands. This project changes that.” Beemon is designed, built, and deployed in North Carolina. As it scales, the team is seeking North Carolina manufacturers to produce molded plastics, sensor boards, and electronic enclosures—creating a direct link between research innovation and statewide economic growth. “It’s a virtuous cycle,” Tashakkori explained. “We build the product here, and in doing so, we help safeguard the very agriculture that sustains North Carolina’s rural communities.”
The Beemon project has also become a living classroom for Appalachian State students. Under Tashakkori’s mentorship, students are contributing to everything from AI model development and hardware testing to brand strategy and user experience design. “The NCInnovation grant lets us hire and mentor this next generation of problem-solvers,” he said. “They’re not just learning computer science—they’re learning how to take an idea to market.”
As Beemon approaches its next milestones—including IP filings, expanded commercialization partnerships, and statewide deployment—its potential continues to grow. “NCInnovation has given us the bridge between research and real-world impact,” Tashakkori said. “They’ve shown how ideas born in a North Carolina university can become tools that strengthen our environment and our economy.” Ultimately, Beemon’s goal is as ambitious as it is essential: to make colony collapse a preventable event, not an annual inevitability. “Healthy hives mean a healthy planet,” Tashakkori reflected. “That’s what drives us. Every hive we save protects our future—one bee at a time.”
