Bega and Thinkerbell Launch Purple Hive Project to Protect Australian Bees

Bega Cheese Limited (Bega) have launched a new honey product, B honey. Created with creative agency Thinkerbell, B honey is focused on the proposition ‘it all starts with a bee’. Inherent to B honey is a commitment from Bega to support the honey bees. To this end Bega and Thinkerbell have developed and launched the ‘Purple Hive Project’, an innovation designed to try to ensure the viability of the Australian honey industry, not just for B honey, but for all honeybee pollination dependent industries.

The Purple Hive Project is an AI enabled, solar-powered hive capable of detecting the Varroa Destructor (a type of Mite), a small yet devastating parasite that is decimating bee colonies around the world. The Mite is also known to transmit viruses amongst honeybees.  

Currently Australia is the only inhabited continent on earth without Varroa Destructor, and monitoring of the Mite is currently a painstakingly manual process.

“When we began to develop B honey, we realised the significant threat facing Australia’s honey industry,” explains Adam McNamara, executive general manager, Bega Foods. “It was clear to us that we needed to invest in technology and innovation to support the future of our honeybees, Australian beekeepers, and in turn, Australian agriculture.”

The Purple Hive works by scanning each individual bee that enters the hive. The AI algorithm can tell the difference between a bee carrying the Mite and a bee without. If a Mite is detected, an alert is instantly sent which provides an opportunity to stop the spread of the Mite. Says Tom Wenborn, executive creative Tinker at Thinkerbell “It’s been inspiring to help a company like Bega walk-the-talk in terms of their commitment to protecting the goodness of the land. We’ve been lucky enough to help build the B honey brand, and Purple Hive Project from the ground up and glad we’ve together found a meaningful way to help Bega protect the viability of the honey industry in Australia.  Ensuring it was feasible, and getting it made has been a hugely collaborative effort working closely with Xailient, Vimana Tech, and Honest Fox. We’re really proud to see it live and running.”

Margie Reid, CEO of Thinkerbell said “We are exceptionally proud of this work and working with Bega Foods though this amazing project has been hugely rewarding for the team. It's great to work on a purpose-driven idea that not only expresses the brand, but also helps protect the industry for years to come.”

Read more about the initiative at purplehiveproject.com.au or watch the ABC Landline segment here.

The B honey range is now available at Coles.