Drones have been used for years by military organizations for intelligence gathering, surveillance, reconnaissance and striking targets. But their widespread use in commercial applications is only just starting to take off thanks to key advances in drone technology.

By connecting beehives to the web, Open Source Beehives hopes the hives will become as busy as the bees inhabiting them: “active, data-generating habitats for a super-organism,” says Tristan Copley Smith, co-founder of the project.