Bencsik, Martin;
McVeigh, Adam;
Claeys Bouuaert, David;
Capela, Nuno;
Penny, Frederick;
Newton, Michael Ian;
Sousa, José Paulo;
de Graaf, Dirk C.
Quantitative assessments of honeybee colony’s response to an artificial vibrational pulse resulting in non-invasive measurements of colony’s overall mobility and restfulness
You can manage bookmarks using lists, please log in to your user account for this.
Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Quantitative assessments of honeybee colony’s response to an artificial vibrational pulse resulting in non-invasive measurements of colony’s overall mobility and restfulness
Contributor:
Bencsik, Martin;
McVeigh, Adam;
Claeys Bouuaert, David;
Capela, Nuno;
Penny, Frederick;
Newton, Michael Ian;
Sousa, José Paulo;
de Graaf, Dirk C.
Published:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024
Description:
AbstractIn this work we aim to provide a quantitative method allowing the probing of the physiological status of honeybee colonies by providing them with a gentle, short, external artificial vibrational shockwave, and recording their response. The knock is provided by an external electromagnetic shaker attached to the outer wall of a hive, driven by a computer with a 0.1 s long, monochromatic vibration at 340Hz set to an amplitude that occasionally yields a mild response from the bees, recorded by an accelerometer placed in the middle of the central frame of the colony. To avoid habituation, the stimulus is supplied at randomised times, approximately every hour. The method is pioneered with a pilot study on a single colony hosted indoors, then extended onto eight outdoors colonies. The results show that we can quantitatively sense the colony’s overall mobility, independently from another physiological aspect, which is phenomenologically explored. Using this, a colony that is queenless is easily discriminated from the others.