Father-Son Duo Helped Create 51,000 New Beehive Colonies Around The World

Oct 10, 2019 by apost team

The declining worldwide bee population could spell disaster for humanity, but one father-son team has made it their mission to save the bees—and us.

The Australian pair, Stuart and Cedar Anderson, are beekeepers from rural Australia. For a decade they worked to find a way to collect honey without disturbing the bees. Their concern first arose when Cedar's brother was stung while collecting honey, which caused him to realize the distress to the bees generated through the collection process according to ABC Australia. Finally hitting on a revolutionary idea, the duo looked to Indiegogo to fund the invention they call the Flow Hive.

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The team's innovative design allows the honey to flow directly from the hive and into containers with absolutely no disruption to the resident bees. The invention generated enough buzz on the Indiegogo site to become the all-time highest earning campaign, garnering an astonishing $12.2 million by 2015. Just four years after taking their brilliant new design live, the Andersons have distributed 51,000 Flow Hives to 150 countries. Rather than becoming millionaires themselves, however, they've donated 100 percent of their profits to organizations in the U.S. and Australia that are dedicated to saving the declining honeybee population.

Cedar points out that loss of habitat and pesticide use have led to the honeybee crisis, adding, "Pollinators need large areas of habitat to flourish—the more we can do to protect and conserve native habitats, the more opportunities these tiny environmental champions will have to do their important work."

Those interested in the design of the Flow Hive and the new Flow Hive II can find the details here. The non-beekeepers among us can also help by building backyard bee havens through planting native species that attract pollinators and constructing bee hotels using bamboo shoots, wood with holes drilled in it, and bricks.

These guys are an inspiration, so let's follow their example and brainstorm more bee-saving ideas!