Identify swarming events
Bees produce specific sound patterns. [1] During a study conducted by Ferrari and colleagues (2008), an in-hive sound recording (microphone) of 270 h revealed, that the sound characteristics and temperature change at swarming events. While the sound frequency increased from a range of 100-300 Hz to 500-600 Hz, the temperature drops from 35 °C to 33 °C. [2] In comparison, Seeley and Tautz (2001) observed that certain workers start to emit short whistling tones with a rising frequency of 100-200 Hz to about 200-250 Hz about 1 hour prior reproductive swarming occurs. They further indicated, that this tone causes other bees to prepare for departure by warming up their flight muscles. [3] Bencsik and colleagues (2011) used accelerometers and its vibrational amplitudes to explore the swarming behavior of A. mellifera resulting in a correlation of data with occurred swarming events. For further improvement of the study setup, they suggest to combine the used methods with a weather monitoring logging device and to use a pattern recognition algorithm that is more complex than the cross-correlation function used for their study. [4] Another useful information to predict swarming events and to assess honey bee health problems is gaining knowledge about the particular brood cycle. In a further study by Bencsik et al. in 2015, a correlation between vibrational amplitude data and the brood cycle in a close range of the sensor was found. They further suggest, that the process of brood cycle monitoring could be conducted with only one hour measurements during the night. [5]
References
- ↑ Zaecepins, A., Kviesis, A., Ahrendt, P., Richter, U., Tekin, S., & Durgun, M. (Hg.) (2016). Beekeeping in the future–smart apiary management. 17th International Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC). Pubslished online, URL (access date: 21.11.2018): http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/servlet/opac?punumber=7496447
- ↑ Ferrari, S., Silva, M., Guarino, M., & Berckmans, D. (2008). Monitoring of swarming sounds in bee hives for early detection of the swarming period. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 64(1), 72–77.
- ↑ Seeley, T. D., Tautz, J. (2001). Worker piping in honey bee swarms and its role in preparing for liftoff. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 187(8), 667–676.
- ↑ Bencsik, M., Bencsik, J., Baxter, M., Lucian, A., Romieu, J., & Millet, M. (2011). Identification of the honey bee swarming process by analysing the time course of hive vibrations. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 76(1), 44–50.
- ↑ Bencsik, M., Le Conte, Y., Reyes, M., Pioz, M., Whittaker, D., Crauser, D., …, & Newton, M. I. (2015). Honeybee Colony Vibrational Measurements to Highlight the Brood Cycle. PloS One, 10(11), e0141926.
