OUR STORY
BeeIQ Solutions is a small family business based in New Zealand. Our goal is to provide solutions, enabling bees to control their hive naturally, improving their health and production. We observe and study bee behaviour as the basis for solutions to problems that bees face in modern-day beekeeping.
The BeeIQ Solutions journey starts somewhere in 2017 with Kyle Atkinson, the inventor of HiveGate. A beekeeper himself Kyle becomes more and more convinced that the current beehive design is not ideal for a bee colony to control their internal hive environment.
Initially focussing on robbing by intruders such as wasps it becomes clear that a change of hive entry design enables the bees to take control of their hive naturally. This is when the idea for HiveGate starts.
Whilst developing and producing HiveGate, BeeIQ Solutions continuously observes and monitors the difference in behaviour that bee colonies show with this newly designed hive entrance.
Continued research is aimed towards improving the ways beekeepers can manage their hives, working with the bees' natural behaviour.
Kyle Atkinson - Bio
Kyle Atkinson is the inventor of HiveGate. To give you some insight into what makes him tick and how that relates to where we are at with BeeIQ Solutions, read the bio below.
Kyle has been around animals his entire life, growing up in a family where animal training and breeding were central. Being dyslexic in 1970s New Zealand meant school was not an encouraging and understanding place. Having struggled through school Kyle went on to focus on working with animals and educating himself in various skills. Kyle built a 25-year career as a very well-respected and skilled farrier & blacksmith. He has in-depth knowledge and understanding of horse anatomy and behaviour, and the ability to interpret animal behaviour and injury, make a diagnosis, treat accordingly and/or advise clients and veterinarians on hoof (or other) treatment.
For nearly twenty years, Kyle combined his farrier career with being a professional animal wrangler, horse trainer, and riding and stunt double in the film and TV film industry. He worked with animals on some of the biggest movies during that time including The Last Samurai, and the Chronicles of Narnia. Kyle was often asked to enable horses to perform a certain type of action or behaviour as requested by the directors.
After a life-changing back injury in 2014 and having to give up his farrier career of 25 years in 2015, Kyle took his then beekeeping hobby to a professional level. Having been around animals for nearly 50 years and working with animal biology, training and behaviour, automatically led to studying and observing bee behaviour and not taking the current beekeeping practice as gospel. Since then his focus has been on BeeIQ Solutions, HiveGate and ongoing research & development.
Charity work
During and after his farrier and beekeeping career Kyle volunteered his time and expertise to several non-profit projects.
-
KiwiCare - Fiji 2013 (Working animal care & welfare charity for the benefit of the animals and their owners; focussing on the education of the animal owners)
-
KiwiCare - India 2013
-
Personal (follow up on Fiji 2013) - Fiji 2015
-
Farrier Care International (UK-based charity, international team of professional veterinarians, farriers and equine dentists) - India 2016
-
President of the Rodney Beekeeping club (2019, 2020)
-
Beekeeping classes Year 7 and 8 students, Wainui Primary school (2019 + 2020)
-
Beekeeping club apiary setup and beekeeping lessons, Helensville Primary School (2020)
All the above charity projects were focused on education and providing people with the knowledge, skills and tools to create better lives for their animals and themselves.
Find below a couple of links to the charity work in Fiji and India. I was able to contribute to educating horse owners in Fiji and India, who rely on their horses as working animals for agriculture, transport, moving goods etc. Often, they just needed some education to better understand how to keep their horses healthy and sound.
The second video from our work in India is pretty graphic. You’ll see some of my work 5 minutes and 10 minutes into the video. My personal favourite is at 12.30 minutes in. The cripple donkey going for a test run after fixing its hooves with a 'shoe extension'. https://youtu.be/X1PpXhlrrYo
Kyle’s aim is to continue with the educational charity work when possible with BeeIQ Solutions.
Our mission
To develop durable innovative solutions that improve bee health and hive production, by observing the bees natural behaviour and take this as the basis for our developments.