Best for Bees of Kitchener has won the silver medal in the Practical Beekeeping category at the World Beekeeping competition held recently in Chili.
Founder and chief executive officer Erica Shelley said the novelty of her ProtectaBEE invention likely caught the judges’ attention.
Her invention is a small cone placed at the hive entrance so bees pick up a fungicide powder that combats threats such as varroa mites.
“One of the things that they’re really looking for is innovation, so something that has not been seen before,” she said.
“Our device, the way it just easily fits on the front of a beehive (is) very practical. It does so many different things for beekeepers. We originally invented it for bee vectoring to bring fungal powders into a beehive for the management of varroa mites.
“That was how it started but because of the way that we designed it, we have different inserts that will allow a beekeeper to direct traffic or keep out pests and predators throughout an entire beekeeping season,” she told reporter Joel Grignon of Farmtario.
