Kimberly Drennan was checking out a project location for her architecture students when she got distracted by the buzz behind the graffiti-stained privacy fence protecting a small portion of the site. Bees? What were they doing there? Who did they belong to? How would this impact the design project for her sophomores at the University of Colorado-Boulder? She knew honeybees were in decline, but not much else about the world’s most ubiquitous pollinator.

Her questions led her to Chelsea Cook, who at the time was working on her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. It was Cook’s hives that shared a fence line with Drennan’s project site. Cook explained the basics of thermoregulation -- how bees manage the climate of hives through complex behaviors designed to safeguard the wellbeing of the colony. “I thought, ‘This would be great for my students. They need to know about bees,’” Drennan said. “I was super intrigued that this natural system was doing what building systems do for us.” 

It led to a deeper conversation: What if they could come up with a way to measure and monitor bee health? Could they adapt sensors like the ones used in buildings to assess markers of hive health? If they could monitor bee health, could they improve it?

With engineer Justin Bellucci, they launched HiveTech Solutions. Their first product, the Smart Hive recorded various aspects of bee health in real-time. Beekeepers could assess hive health by checking an app on their phone. The Smart Hive won CU’s New Venture Challenge, a competition for startups.

But that technology had its limits.

“The bees were not so keen on having the sensors in their hives,” Cook said. “We ultimately saw that even with this data, beekeepers still needed a tool to help their bees.”

Cook reached out to Dr. Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman, a USDA expert on bees, varroa mites, and cold storage. She encouraged Drennan and Cook to consider crafting a tool that would enable beekeepers to control the climate of hives to stabilize colony health. With Drennan’s design experience and Cook’s expertise on honeybee health, they developed the MICA -- mobile indoor climate-controlled apiary. 

The MICA gives beekeepers a new way to safeguard their hives through winter months and bring strong colonies safely into the spring.