Project Beeswax: On the Problem of Beehive Location for Optimum Pollination

Abdellah Salhi

doi:10.19080/aibm.2018.10.555787

Abstract

Project Beeswax: On the Problem of Beehive Location for Optimum Pollination

Highlights

Food production is to a large extent dependent on pollination
The number of needed beehives may well be overestimated too, which will impact negatively on pollination elsewhere, since there are not enough bees to go around.It is, necessary to look at this decision-making problem from a systematic viewpoint, so that appropriate positions for the beehives can be found and only the necessary number of beehives are used.The approach expanded here advocates the placement of beehives among the trees and plants where they are needed.Their number and locations are defined based on the area of the field, the number of plants to pollinate and the distance a bee will cover to forage
We refer to this problem as the Beehive Location Problem (BLP) which is that of placing the least number of beehives to pollinate a given number of trees

Summary

Introduction

Food production is to a large extent dependent on pollination. Pollinators such as honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees, hover flies, butterflies and other wild pollinators are being lost at an alarming rate due to loss of habitat, disease [1], and excessive use of pesticides and in particular neonicotinoids. This report describes an optimization approach to deploying honeybees in an effective way for pollinating fruit trees and other flowering plants. Current practice consists in beehives arriving on trailers and left on them on the edge of the fields where the plants to pollinate sit.This approach is convenient since the beehives are all kept together, and the trailers are stowed away at the end of the hire period. The number of needed beehives may well be overestimated too, which will impact negatively on pollination elsewhere, since there are not enough bees to go around.It is, necessary to look at this decision-making problem from a systematic viewpoint, so that appropriate (possibly optimal) positions for the beehives can be found and only the necessary number of beehives are used.The approach expanded here advocates the placement of beehives among the trees and plants where they are needed.Their number and locations are defined based on the area of the field, the number of plants to pollinate and the distance a bee will cover to forage

The Beehive Location Problem

The Optimization Model

Conclusion