[lun4r]

You could consider apiculture. Yes, that's right, beekeeping. You might wonder how this is relevant to your 11 years of development experience, but let me explain.

Beekeeping can offer a relaxing, nature-oriented antidote to the stresses of coding, and moreover, there is a burgeoning market for smart apiary technology. Bee mortality rates have increased over recent years for numerous reasons, and technology is beginning to find ways to address these problems.

As a developer, you could design systems to monitor hive health, honey production levels or even bee activity. This data can be used to predict illnesses, optimize honey production, or understand more about bee behavior, providing valuable insights to the beekeeping community as well as researchers.

This unique combination of software development and beekeeping could potentially be a lucrative side gig. Not to mention, a proportion of the honey could be sold for additional profit or used for personal consumption.

So, while it may seem far fetched, your coding skills could help save the global bee population while offering a calming, profitable new hobby.

(:

[mrweasel]

I wouldn't get into beekeeping to make money, it does have the potential to become an expensive hobby. Also honey isn't where money is made easily, the bees are. A family of bees around here sells for around €200. Depending on your location and skills you can make maybe two addition families from each hive each year (I never manage more than one). If you can make your own calm queens even better, but now we're leaving hobby territory.

If you do go this route: Buy used equipment, advertise swarm catching and try to get to a point where you're comfortable selling a few families each year (remember to have them checked for deceases before they leave your apiary).

[dysoco]

I'm sorry to be THAT guy but this seems AI generated and the latest comments from this account seem similar as well.

[merry_flame]

The bees you can breed are not the bees/pollinators that nature is losing. This is like suggesting that to counter the global collapse in birds, you should raise chickens… Worse, domestic bees are often competitors to wild bees, bumblebees, etc. The solution there lies in fighting against the use of broad-spectrum pesticides, planting hedgerows, allowing meadows to thrive, etc.

[meristohm]

Until we planted ~native meadow in our yard (Pacific Northwest), I didn't know there were so many different bees! What I think of as bumblebees vary from almost entirely yellow to nearly all black, with mixed stripes in between, and varying in shape and size, from tip of pinkie to end of my thumb. Then there are the littler bees, often iridescent green or shiny black. I also learned how unthreatening they are; I can get within inches and all they seem to care about is the flowers. The various wasps/hornets I'm more wary of, but even they haven't stung me yet. I like them in the garden because they eat pests. I've only killed one colony, because it was a nest in the ground on the path to the garden.

[Gnarl]

Very interesting suggestion! I must however point out that near monitoring of bees should not be based on wireless tech. There are now numerous studies showing that bees exhibit avoidance reactions to active phone and WiFi signals (think: colony collapse, hive abandonment). Probably an effect mediated via their high magnetic field sensitivity. For starters, see: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s13592-011-001...

[david-gpu]

The methodology in the study you link is suspect. Instead of changing just one variable, whether the phones had their batteries on or off, they changed other parameters. For instance, in one branch of the experiment the experimenters introduced a radio loudspeaker 60cm from the hive. This is particularly problematic when the measurement they used to determine the status of the bees was --wait for it-- sound.

I also saw nothing done in the experiment to separate whether the observed effects were caused by vibration, noise, or electromagnetic effects.

I sincerely read it with an open mind, but it doesn't look like a well-designed study.

[Gnarl]

Thanks for looking. That was for starters. A pilot study. There's much more there. A selection:

"Electromagnetic radiation of mobile telecommunication antennas affects the abundance and composition of wild pollinators" https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/5196373

"Exposure to cell phone radiations produces biochemical changes in worker honey bees" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3052591/

"Distribution, diversity and abundance of some insects around a telecommunication mast in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria" https://bnrc.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42269-021-00...

"Electromagnetic radiation as an emerging driver factor for the decline of insects" (review) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00489...

"Biological effects of electromagnetic fields on insects" (review) https://ehtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/Thill_Review_Insects_...

"Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, part 1. Rising ambient EMF levels in the environment" (review) https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/reveh-2021-00...

"Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, Part 2 impacts: how species interact with natural and man-made EMF" (review) https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/reveh-2021-00...

"Effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields on flora and fauna, Part 3. Exposure standards, public policy, laws, and future directions" (review) https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/reveh-2021-00...

[david-gpu]

I hope you understand that I won't entertain this Gish gallop after the substandard quality of the first link you provided. Thank you.

[Gnarl]

Of course. I don't care about your opinion. Only those who are actually interested in looking into this.

[ferennag]

Wow this is a very interesting idea, thank you.

Unfortunately I am living in a house with a very small yard, so at the moment it is impossible for me to pursue bee keeping.

But, where can I learn more about this? What are the best resources?

[criticas]

If you're in the US, there are many resources. Many states have a beekeeper's association that offer mentoring, training, and apprenticeship programs. If you have a child, 4-H probably has a program. The US Department of Agriculture, Country Agricultural Extension, or State Universities often sponsor workshops. Try searching on "Learn Beekeeping in <CITY> <STATE>".

[gcheong]

Maybe try worm farming then? https://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Worm-Farm-for-Profit

[shesto]

There was one startup where if you are i terested we can get connected, already made electonics and we neee some like you.

[mndgs]

I read "bookkeeping" instead of "beekeeping" and then thought: what, how is bookkeeping calming, relaxing activity? Well, maybe to someone...

[0cf8612b2e1e]

On one hand, being a bookie sounds like a super interesting optimization problem. How to draw the line in such a way that you are always net positive, regardless of game outcome.

On the other hand, you have the two worst possible problems: staking your money daily + chasing clients for money.

[amock]

Bookkeeping is about recording financial transactions. Bookmaking is taking bets.

[politelemon]

I read apiculture as API Culture and was wondering why API consumption needed it.

[sitzkrieg]

ill double that notion, id love to work on something as important as this :^)

[tayo42]

Is there someone hiring to do this?

[woleium]

sadly code probably can't fix the bees, that will require lowering production and usage of pesticides.

[pcdoodle]

Dang, this is a good answer.