Scanning & analysing individual bee (<em>Apis mellifera</em> L.) behavior using RFID

Autor/innen

  • Jacob P. van Praagh
  • Egbert Touw

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5073/jka.2012.437.026

Abstract

A complete system to make real-time flight entrance observations possible is described. The system consists of:
  • RFID reader covering the flight entrance of a colony in a standard hive (25 cm wide). Each passing tagged bee is detected. ID, day, time is stored in the database and shown via the webinterface.
  • ApiScan covering the same entrance width; giving in and out flight-activity on an individual basis.
  • Camera allowing a permanent remote observation and registration of behavior at the flight entrance.
  • Weather station registering air temperature, air humidity, wind velocity and direction, rain.

The equipment and the data storage allows an in-depth analysis of the flight behavior of the worker bees during the measuring period or the lifespan of a worker bee.

Keywords: honeybee, RFID tags, foraging behavior, automatic monitoring

Downloads

Veröffentlicht

2012-10-02