Detection and Analysis of Pheromones in Beehives through Advanced Sensing Technologies

The Challenge

Healthy bee colonies are critical to agricultural productivity and ecosystem resilience, yet beekeepers have limited ability to continuously assess hive health across distributed and often remote locations. Colony stress can be driven by multiple interacting factors, including climate variability, disease, parasites, invasive species, nutrition, and environmental change. Current monitoring approaches often require physical inspections, which are labour-intensive, disruptive to the hive, and difficult to scale. There is a need for non-invasive methods that provide early warning of declining colony health before visible symptoms emerge. Understanding the biological signals emitted by bees under stress is a key challenge in developing such capability.

The Solution

This project investigates the chemical biomarkers and pheromones emitted by honeybees that indicate physiological stress and changing colony conditions. By identifying and characterising these signals, the research aims to establish a foundation for next-generation nanosensors specifically tailored to detect key indicators of hive health. In partnership with BeeSTAR, the identified biomarkers will inform the design of advanced sensing technologies that can be integrated into existing hive monitoring platforms. The resulting system will enable continuous, non-invasive monitoring of bee colonies, providing beekeepers with actionable insights and early intervention opportunities to improve colony resilience, productivity, and long-term sustainability.

Industry Partner