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A group of five students from Westmont School, north of Auckland, brought their Big Brother Surveillance Young Enterprise Scheme  project to the Fieldays Innovation Centre after identifying that the bee industry could lose millions of dollars annually due to theft and damage.

Damaris Simpkin said the group looked at the output efficiencies of various industries including tourism and airport security.

"We did a lot of research and spoke to 780 beekeepers around New Zealand," she said.

"As a result, one of the problem areas they identified was the losses they faced. The price of manuka honey is high and beekeepers are finding their hives are being broken into or vandalised by thieves trying to get to the honey."

The Big Brother Surveillance system is designed to help protect the bees, hives and honey through providing video and still footage of intruders.

The 16 mega-pixel motion-sensor cameras contain a card that captures illegal activity both during the day and at night using infra-red.

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