Honeybees are not the bee population that needs to be saved.
And the honeybee populations least in need of saving are the big commercial operations this tech seems targeted toward. (These operations typically park their hives in random rural locations between jobs, where their bees raid and outcompete local pollinators and carry diseases from region to region.)
And more specifically, it’s pollinators in general that need help, honeybees excluded.
bee populations are declining rapidly due to habitat loss, pesticides, parasites, and climate change.
Not sure why habitat loss is listed since honeybees are invasive in the U.S. We should be focusing harder on saving native pollinators.
Another thing that would have potential to help bees would be combating light pollution.
Any tech to save pollinators and especially honey bees is a major major global win. The honey market has been long since adultered with mass amounts of fake products. Bee colonies are declining at unprecedented rates. Pollinators as a whole are a mere fraction of what they used to be. Look at the science. It’s atrocious.
We can help on a very small scale by planting a variety of native plants and not using pesticide or herbicide. I don’t know much about the risks of fertilizer on a small scale, but it’s generally not needed for native plants anyways.
I know many local bee keepers and it’s depressing as hell when the colonies collapse for no real reason. They steadily have been in decline for years cutting in half then half again. Bouncing back is rare. It’s very stressful and turbulent.