About This Project

The aim of this study is to connect foraging activity of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to incoming food supply (nectar and pollen). With the use of sensors, weight trackers and counters, we'll track foraging bees entering or exiting the hive, as well as conditions in the hive. This information will tell us more about how changes in the food supplies and quality, such as from climate change or pesticide intake, can affect foraging, colony growth and colony health.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Honeybees suffer severe threats like the use of neonicotinoids and Varroa mite attacks. This puts worldwide honeybee populations under pressure. Already intense research has been carried out on honey bees but research on foraging activity has been limited to estimation or tracking with small radio frequency ID tags, so called RFID's. On Instructibles, however, an open source Bee Counter was presented that can give a more accurate recording of colony foraging activity. Combined with real-time weighing of individual incoming and outgoing foragers, this can give a detailed view of day-by-day food supply entering the hive.

What is the significance of this project?

The consequences for global honey bee populations decline are obviously not negligible: it is estimated that annual pollination value worldwide is about 153 billion euros (Hein, 2009; Losey & Vaughan, 2006). A correlation between food supply and foraging activity seems obvious but it is interesting to see how this food is used by the colony. Food allocation gives an idea on the use of pollen and nectar on worker force building and colony homeostasis. When the correlation is clear, it could later be linked to weather or environmental conditions in order to investigate the influence of climate change and pesticide use to colony fitness and the occurrence of problems like Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

What are the goals of the project?

Research Question

What is the amount of food (nectar and pollen) supplied by honeybee foragers and how can be it measured and/or calculated where the food is going?
This project wants to focus on how much food enters the hive every day and try to correlate this with the everyday need to produce worker bees, maintain the ideal hive temperature and humidity and, at the end of ‘bee season’, build a winter supply.
The connection with a small weather station gives the possibility to link hive activity and the annual cycle of the colony to local weather conditions.