One of the worker-bees at Flow Hive has launched a new educational bee game called ‘Forage’ on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.
Byron Bay local Yari McGauley, a beekeeper of 10 years, launched the game last week after being inspired by an opportunity to upcycle some of the waste materials from the Flow Hive production line.
A board game enthusiast, McGauley said he had his ‘eureka’ moment when watching the Flow Hive laser-cut wooden pieces come off the conveyor belt.
‘Hmm… all those neat little hexagonal laser offcuts would be great for a game,’ McGauley said.
If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, the local entrepreneur hopes to take the game to the world, with early interest from Walmart, Barnes & Noble, and Kmart in the USA.
Forage is a 2-4 player game which involves guiding your beehive through the seasons by collecting nectar, pollen and bees as you deal with pests, bears and the opposition.
Yari said his aim was to make a fun game that highlights how important bees are to our world, with a third of food crops needing bees for pollination. Bees are in trouble world-wide with US beekeepers losing 33% of bees in 2016-17.
Flow Hive, whose crowdfunding campaign raised US$12 million in five weeks back in 2015 now employs 50 staff locally and is exporting bee hives around the world.
The Forage crowdfunding campaign has already raised 25 per cent of its target in the first three days on Kickstarter. It continues until January 6 next year.
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