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If you're going to leave a bunch of $1500 hives in a field, wouldn't it make sense to hide trackers in some of them? Netflix's Rotten S01E01 covers much of the
by Scaevolus 8y ago
If you're going to leave a bunch of $1500 hives in a field, wouldn't it make sense to hide trackers in some of them?
Netflix's Rotten S01E01 covers much of the same material.
- HammadB 8y agoRotten is such a fantastic docu-series. Are you aware of any other similar shows?
- mikeyouse 8y agoDirty Money is a similarly themed one about corruption -- the first season covered a great maple syrup heist, Allergan pharmaceuticals, a Payday loan criminal, HSBC's cartel connections, the VW NoX emissions scandal, and Trump's business career. https://www.netflix.com/title/80118100 https://www.netflix.com/title/80118100
- cwyers 8y agoThe maple syrup heist episode is amazing. I still can't believe that's real.
- burntrelish1273 8y agoLet's say the amortized cost of a GPS tracker is, conservatively/high-end with a lifetime data plan for updates every hour: $100. Let's say the cost of mean average deployment is $10. Then the break-even point for hive theft is reached if losses are well over 7.33 (bar) %. (110/1500) If losses are high, beekeepers will deploy them. If losses are low, deploying GPS would be more of a fear-based, emotional decision than a rational one.
- golem14 8y agoNeed only GPS trackers on a sample of the hives, no?
- burntrelish1273 8y agoIt depends on the distribution of thefts and % coverage. If the losses are high enough, higher % of trackers would increase ROI (up to a point, depending if trackers were cheap enough). If losses are low enough or trackers very expensive, a few trackers here and there would insure against infrequent "cleaned out" thefts, e.g., serious illness healthcare insurance.
- itomato 8y agoOnly for that use case. From a logistics standpoint, which seems so important to the "modern beekeeper", it sounds like an easy thing to say yes to. The question of "where are my bees?" can have a real-time answer and carries the benefit of knowing the temperature, humidity and other data available from remote sensors.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoI have thought about the feasibility of an IOT beehive, maybe even with leaving/returning bees etc. But the main issue would be the low profit of any individual hive. Save for some research projects, it wouldn't make sense economically.
- petre 8y agoDon't mobile radio signals disturb the bees? Maybe beehive trackers could use LoRa instead of 3G.
- setr 8y agoThe other piece of the puzzle is how meaningful the loss is; if such a theft is existentially threatening, and there's a reasonable chance of it, then it may still be deployed despite not actually saving money.
- taneq 8y agoExactly. Expected payoff is only useful if you have infinite resources. This is why most of us pay for insurance even though in the long run it's guaranteed to cost more than just self-funding any repairs or replacements.
- emodendroket 8y agoI mean, if you are at fault in an accident where several people sustain life-changing injuries, or your home is a total loss, or whatever, then you probably did end coming out ahead with the insurance. Insurance makes the most sense for perils which would be catastrophic for you.
- petre 8y agoIt's insurance against beehive theft, not accident insurance. Are your company insurance policies sold in a package?
- gknoy 8y agoFor the beekeeper in the story, it was catastrophic, in that it wiped out his chance for retirement, he said.
- emodendroket 8y agoIt's just an example.
- paublyrne 8y agoin the long run it's guaranteed to cost more than just self-funding any repairs or replacements If you're talking about home insurance then this is certainly not guaranteed. The primary purpose of home insurance is not in any case to safe you money on small repairs but to protect you from a total loss, say from fire.
- petre 8y agoNo need for lifetime data plan. You only equip some of the hives with trackers just when you're moving them to almond cultures where most thefts in the US occur.
- mehblahwhatevs 8y agoYes it seems like that episode of Rotten covers this exact story? At least from what I remember it was about a hive owner from Montana (?) who transported his bees to CA.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoA thief could try to track the tracker, and remove it or even just leave that hive behind.
- petre 8y agoBetter still, jam all GPS, GNSS, GPRS and 3G and 4G signals, along with 2.4, 5 Ghz and LoRa bands just to be sure. Specialized car thieves are already doing it, hive thieves probably not yet. Tracking and removing the tracker is more difficult and can be done later.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoJamming the GPS receiver or anything else on site would trigger an alert. Then law enforcement has a very small amount of time to arrive at a very remote location...
- TimTheTinker 8y agoRemote systems could throw an alert if the tracking devices go dark past a timeout period. At a minimum, authorities could be quickly alerted with the last known location of the hives.
- gonyea 8y agoI don’t think you can really do that. Jamming mostly targets a receiver. Disrupting the signal that’s emitted by a tracking device would make you really easy to triangulate and find.
- amenod 8y agoNo need for that either, you could just jam the GPS receiver.
- lostlogin 8y agoNearby cameras and distinctive frames (here are some pink ones https://www.ecrotek.co.nz/product/honeymaxtm-full-depth-pink-plastic-frame https://www.ecrotek.co.nz/product/honeymaxtm-full-depth-pink...). Brand the frames, brand the box and lock the hell out of everything. A fair portion of thefts have been performed by staff at companies too, so that’s worth keeping in mind. Also, get on with neighbours. Putting masses of hives up against a propert boundary, specifically to target Manuka that’s grown next door tends to rile people up.
- lostlogin 8y agoYup. Motion sensitive cameras, stamped frames with your details and the odd gps locator hidden in frames. It’s bad in New Zealand with the honey being very valuable (though less than half what the article cites, we use NZ dollars, which are worth half as much as US ones).