Help us reach our goal and double the power of your donation. David Bagget has generously agreed to match donations up to $5,000.

We thank you for your generous support!

David Baggett, B.S. ’92 computer science and linguistics, is a member of the University of Maryland Board of Trustees and a member of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences Board of Visitors.

Thank you all for your donations! We are 52% toward reaching our funding goal! We have raised almost $4,200 and a generous computer science and linguistics alumnus David Baggett has offered to match the first $5,000 we raise, so please keep sharing our project with friends and family!

We’ve received several questions about how the Sentinel Hives will work and how they benefit beekeepers. So we thought we would take a minute to explain.

The money we raise will be used to turn regular honey bee colonies into Sentinel Hives. Bee yards managed by beekeeping organizations or bee yards that belong to members of county bee clubs in Maryland may be selected for a Sentinel Hive. These hives will be outfitted with a hive scale to monitor colony growth via weight gain and weight loss and a trap that gathers some of the pollen bees collect to determine which plants the bees are pollinating. These Sentinel Hives will be part of a normal functioning apiary with three to seven other colonies in the same location. All of the hives will be sampled regularly to monitor for parasites and disease. By monitoring colony growth and disease, we will be able to alert beekeepers that it is time to treat for disease or harvest honey, and suggest other useful beekeeping management practices.  The timing of these practices is extremely variable, and differs from county to county and year to year because of differences in vegetation and climate.  Providing real-time information will assist all beekeepers in keeping their colonies healthy, because they can use the regionally specific real-time information to make informed decisions about colony management.

It costs $1,000 to set up and monitor each of these Sentinel Hives. If we exceed our $8,000 fundraising goal, we plan to expand the program to include more beekeeping groups within Maryland and surrounding states.

We’ve surpassed our goal, raising almost $12K thanks to our many donors and the substantial $5K matching gift from Dave Baggett. With your generous support our pilot program will set up 12 Sentinel Hives in Maryland and the surrounding states. Thank you!

We continue to receive lots of interest from beekeepers and beekeeping organizations. For each additional $1,000 we raise we can fund one more Sentinel Hive. Our campaign still has 15 days to go. Help us reach 20K and fund 20 Sentinel Hives to improve honey bee health by sharing our story with friends and family. 

In case you missed it, we were featured on NPR.

Wow, thanks to our generous supporters and donors we've more than doubled our goal, raising almost 17K for our Sentinel Hive pilot program. The University of Maryland has challenged us to reach 20K. We think we can do it, but the clock is ticking. Help us fund 20 Sentinel Hives by sharing our project with your friends and family: https://www.launch.umd.edu/honeybees  

We wanted to reach out to all our enthusiastic donors and let you know how excited we are about the upcoming start of the Sentinel Apiary Pilot Program. Thank you! Due to your generosity, we were able to order 24 hive scales. Letters of participation have been mailed to the beekeeping organizations. These Sentinel Hive systems will be in place by late March, so we can start collecting data to improve honey bee health this April.

Just in case you’ve always wanted to learn how to keep bees, we wanted to let you know we are now offering a beginners beekeeping short course at the University March 28-29th. Please check it out on our lab webpage. http://www.vanengelsdorpbeelab.com/beekeeping-course.html

This course will be a fun weekend of learning and making connections with others who care about bees as much as you do! We hope to see you there.