Here at Aleph Objects, Inc., makers of the LulzBot 3D printers, parts, and filaments, we are thrilled to formally announce that we are partnering with the Open Source Beehives project (logo pictured on the left-hand side of this post)! Open Source Beehives is the flagship product of a Denver-based organization called Open Tech Collaborative.
What's Open Source Beehives all about? According to their website, 'The Open Source Beehives project is a collaborative response to the threat faced by bee populations in industrialized nations around the world.' And how are they responding exactly?
The Open Source Beehives team came up with two different open source beehive designs (the Colorado Top Bar is featured on the left-hand side of this post), each of which can be easily cut from a single piece of wood so anyone can own their own CNC machined beehive! With the design files being released to the public, they are already seeing rapid adoption of the technology around the world.
'The project proposes to design hives that can support bee colonies in a sustainable way, to monitor and track the health and behaviour of a colony as it develops. Each hive contains an open source sensory kit, The Smart Citizen Kit (SCK), which can transmit to an open data platform: Smartcitizen.me.'
The sensor enhanced hive designs are fully open source hardware and freely available online. Then, the data collected from their hive network will be open and available for research and analysis into the health of the world's bee population.
We attended their launch party a few months ago and were so impressed with the project that we wanted to find some way to get involved. After some discussion, the team let us know that they could use a robust 3D printer to both test 3D printable models of their hive and prototype cases for the electronics that will be used in the hives.
We are thrilled to partner with them and have a fully Libre / Open Source Hardware LulzBot TAZ 3D printer in their hands. Without further ado, here's a video to their LulzBot TAZ unboxing video:
Open Source Beehives - Update #7 from Open Tech Collaborative on Vimeo.
Needless to say, we can't wait to see their project grow. We're not the only ones that are excited either, one of the project supporters named Catherine Perry commented, 'That is so cool about the donated printer! I love that this project is bringing together people like this! You are doing it! Exactly what you set out to do!!!' We couldn't agree more, Catherine!
While the campaign is now over, they shattered their fundraising goal by over 300%! To learn more about the Open Source Beehives project and 3D printed beehives you can visit the Open Source Beehives crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
