High accuracy monitoring of honey bee colony development by a quantitative method

TY - JOUR

T1 - High accuracy monitoring of honey bee colony development by a quantitative method

AU - Capela, Nuno

AU - Dupont, Yoko Luise

AU - Rortais, Agnes

AU - Sarmento, Arthur

AU - Papanikolaou, Alexandra

AU - Topping, Christopher John

AU - Arnold, Gérard

AU - Pinto, M. Alice

AU - J. Rodrigues, Pedro

AU - J. More, Simon

AU - Tosi, Simone

AU - Alves, Thiago

AU - Sousa, José Paulo

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Honey bees are key insect pollinators, providing important economic and ecological valuefor human beings and ecosystems. This has triggered the development of several monitoringmethods for assessing the temporal development of colony size, food storage, broodand pathogens. Nonetheless, most of these methods are based on visual assessments thatare observer-dependent and prone to bias. Furthermore, the impact on colony development(invasiveness), as well as accuracy, were rarely considered when implementing new methods.In this study, we present and test a novel accurate and observer-independent method forhoney bee colony assessment, capable of being fully standardized. Honey bee colony size isquantified by assessing the weight of adult bees, while brood and provision are assessed bytaking photos and conducting image analysis of the combs with the image analysis softwareDeepbeeVR . The invasiveness and accuracy of the method were investigated using field datafrom two experimental apiaries in Portugal, comparing results from test and control colonies.At the end of each field experiment, most of the tested colonies had the same colony size,brood levels and honey production as the control colonies. Nonetheless, continuous weightdata indicated some disturbance in tested colonies in the first year of monitoring. The overallaccuracy of the image analysis software was improved by training, indicating that it ispossible to adapt the software to local conditions. We conclude that the use of this fullyquantitative method offers a more accurate alternative to classic visual colony assessments,with negligible impact on colony development.

AB - Honey bees are key insect pollinators, providing important economic and ecological valuefor human beings and ecosystems. This has triggered the development of several monitoringmethods for assessing the temporal development of colony size, food storage, broodand pathogens. Nonetheless, most of these methods are based on visual assessments thatare observer-dependent and prone to bias. Furthermore, the impact on colony development(invasiveness), as well as accuracy, were rarely considered when implementing new methods.In this study, we present and test a novel accurate and observer-independent method forhoney bee colony assessment, capable of being fully standardized. Honey bee colony size isquantified by assessing the weight of adult bees, while brood and provision are assessed bytaking photos and conducting image analysis of the combs with the image analysis softwareDeepbeeVR . The invasiveness and accuracy of the method were investigated using field datafrom two experimental apiaries in Portugal, comparing results from test and control colonies.At the end of each field experiment, most of the tested colonies had the same colony size,brood levels and honey production as the control colonies. Nonetheless, continuous weightdata indicated some disturbance in tested colonies in the first year of monitoring. The overallaccuracy of the image analysis software was improved by training, indicating that it ispossible to adapt the software to local conditions. We conclude that the use of this fullyquantitative method offers a more accurate alternative to classic visual colony assessments,with negligible impact on colony development.

KW - Apis mellifera

KW - colony strength

KW - colony size

KW - brood development

KW - colony monitoring

KW - Apis mellifera

KW - brood development

KW - colony monitoring

KW - colony size

KW - colony strength

U2 - 10.1080/00218839.2022.2098899

DO - 10.1080/00218839.2022.2098899

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0021-8839

VL - 62

SP - 741

EP - 750

JO - Journal of Apicultural Research

JF - Journal of Apicultural Research

IS - 4

ER -