Hive grading model confirmed through six years of optimizations
The Bee Corp has spent the past six years testing, tuning and optimizing their infrared hive grading model with the goal of maintaining accuracy with every new addition to the technology. With the vast and in-depth data generated by the tool, Verifli’s hive strength assessments are creating the standard for pollination success — increasing the value brought to the growers, decreasing input and labor costs, providing more data — pushing the entire industry to think beyond the traditional manual grading.
| This was the first season in which The Bee Corp didn’t require manual inspections because model performance has exceeded the high accuracy target the company has set for themselves. In 2021, The Bee Corp designated time during almond pollination to conduct validation tests for each of their customers to confirm the accuracy and value delivered by Verifli. Through the validation test, the numbers produced by both manual and Verifli grading matched up — making Verifli faster and more accurate than ever.
“Our approach to developing Verifli has been cautious and deliberate — only building features that address immediate needs of our customers,” said The Bee Corp CEO, Ellie Symes. “We learned early on that AgTech innovations achieve success not by making lofty promises about what it could become, but by being pragmatic about the value it provides today and candid about its current limitations.”
This extends The Bee Corp’s data for upcoming seasons and adds the ability to define more variables that affect pollination success. As the company gears up for their fifth season in almond groves, and the addition of adapting the model for several other crops including berries, apples and avocados, the brand no longer needs to manually grade to confirm the confidence in their technology.
| “This achievement is a result of more than six years collecting hive data in the field, plus thousands of hours of data analysis and refining our methods,” said Wyatt Wells, COO. “When we committed to building Verifli, we didn’t know if it was even possible to measure colony strength through infrared image analysis. Our attitude at the time was ‘we won’t know until we try’. This is an attitude which has become core to our company culture over time.”
The Bee Corp has several initiatives for 2022, including delivering instant results (compared to their 48-hour result model previously) and adapting to working in cold storage conditions. The Bee Corp is happy to announce Verifli is protected by US Patent No. 11,301,679 B2. Further improvements to the technology are expected in the seasons ahead. The goal has always been to be the fast, accurate, unbiased hive grading system. As the needs and variables change for the industry and they enter new markets, The Bee Corp continues to adapt and push the entire industry.
“This issuance of the latest patent is further evidence that The Bee Corp continues to refine and improve our platform technology,” said new team member and Head of Growth, William Still. “We are excited to leverage Verifli and this technology into new and exciting future markets.” |
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