Pollination check

Being built for the 2027 season · looking for pilot orchards

Did the hives you paid for arrive?

A check of rented pollination hives, done with your own technician's phone. No sensors, no hardware.

The problem

You pay per box, not per bee. Many contracts count boxes. Chile's standard for a pollination hive (NCh3255) asks for at least 8 frames covered with bees and 3.5 frames of brood; in almonds the usual standard is an average of 8 frames. Whether that arrived is rarely checked.

Rents are too low for strong hives. In Chile a cherry or blueberry hive rents for about CLP 20,000–25,000, and beekeepers’ own groups say that is below the cost of keeping a strong colony. That is where weak hives come from.

The hour matters. Counted in the afternoon, when the foragers are out, the same hive looks about two frames weaker than at dawn (our analysis of the open data of Cook et al. 2026). A count is only worth something if its time is proven.

How it will work

  1. Record the orchard and the contract. Hectares, number of hives, the minimum frames agreed.
  2. The app picks 10–15% of the hives at random. Nobody can choose which boxes get opened.
  3. Your technician counts in the morning, before bees fly. Lid off, one photo from above per hive, about a minute each. The server records the time and the place; two people score each photo.
  4. A report the same day. Average frames against the contract, the share of weak hives, how sure the number is, where the hives stand in the orchard and what the contract's deduction clause gives — sealed, with a link anyone can check.

An example report (a made-up orchard)

  • 20 of 200 hives counted, 07:12–07:41, 6 °C, before flight
  • Average 5.2 frames of bees — contract: 8
  • 90% likely range for all 200 hives: 4.6–5.8
  • 35% of the hives under 5 frames
  • Map: 150 hives stacked along the road
  • By the contract's deduction clause: 74% of the rent

After bloom — experimental in the 2027 pilots

The question nobody measures: was the crop lost to pollination, to the hives or to the weather? In the pilots we collect what it takes to answer it:

  • Daily flying hours from the weather (temperature, rain, wind)
  • A branch test: on the same tree, a hand-pollinated branch next to an open one, flowers and fruit counted
  • Competing bloom around the orchard, from ARIA's nectar map

No verdict on your crop until the method has been checked against these data and signed off by an agronomist.

Why the number can be trusted

  • The app picks the hives at random — not the beekeeper, not the counter
  • Time and place are recorded by the server, not by the phone
  • Two people score each photo; if they differ by more than a frame, a third one does
  • A report is not sealed while a chosen hive has neither a photo nor the reason it could not be opened
  • The same photo used for two hives is caught

What it is not

  • No hardware: a sensor per hive does not pay at today’s rents
  • The beekeeper does not need to use ARIA
  • ARIA takes no cut of the rent and stays out of the payment
  • Not a certificate and not a disease diagnosis: it measures colony strength against your contract

Ready today

Spray notice: tell the beekeepers around your field before you apply a product toxic to bees, with a dated record (in Chile, Law 21.489 asks for 48 hours’ notice).

Give a spray notice

Who it is for

Cherry, almond, blueberry, kiwi and avocado growers who rent hives; exporters; pollination companies. Chile, Australia and Peru first.

We are looking for 3–5 pilot orchards for 2027

Pilots use it free for the whole season; in return they tell us what works and what does not. Write to us with your crop, region and hectares.

hello@ariabuzz.com

Questions

Does the beekeeper have to use ARIA?

No. The count is done by the grower's own technician.

What will it cost?

Nothing for the 2027 pilots. After that, a price per hectare per season, set together with the pilots.

Is this a certificate?

No. It is a record anyone can check: who counted, when, where and what. The standard is the one in your contract.

Which standard does it use?

The one in your contract: the app compares the count with the minimum frames you agreed. If your contract says nothing about hive strength, you can start from a published standard — Chile’s NCh3255 (at least 8 frames of bees and 3.5 of brood) or the 8-frame average usual in almonds — and write it into next season’s contract.