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Using within-day hive weight changes to measure environmental effects on honey bee colonies

Author

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  • William G Meikle
  • Niels Holst
  • Théotime Colin
  • Milagra Weiss
  • Mark J Carroll
  • Quinn S McFrederick
  • Andrew B Barron

Abstract

Patterns in within-day hive weight data from two independent datasets in Arizona and California were modeled using piecewise regression, and analyzed with respect to honey bee colony behavior and landscape effects. The regression analysis yielded information on the start and finish of a colony’s daily activity cycle, hive weight change at night, hive weight loss due to departing foragers and weight gain due to returning foragers. Assumptions about the meaning of the timing and size of the morning weight changes were tested in a third study by delaying the forager departure times from one to three hours using screen entrance gates. A regression of planned vs. observed departure delays showed that the initial hive weight loss around dawn was largely due to foragers. In a similar experiment in Australia, hive weight loss due to departing foragers in the morning was correlated with net bee traffic (difference between the number of departing bees and the number of arriving bees) and from those data the payload of the arriving bees was estimated to be 0.02 g. The piecewise regression approach was then used to analyze a fifth study involving hives with and without access to natural forage. The analysis showed that, during a commercial pollination event, hives with previous access to forage had a significantly higher rate of weight gain as the foragers returned in the afternoon, and, in the weeks after the pollination event, a significantly higher rate of weight loss in the morning, as foragers departed. This combination of continuous weight data and piecewise regression proved effective in detecting treatment differences in foraging activity that other methods failed to detect.

Suggested Citation

  • William G Meikle & Niels Holst & Théotime Colin & Milagra Weiss & Mark J Carroll & Quinn S McFrederick & Andrew B Barron, 2018. "Using within-day hive weight changes to measure environmental effects on honey bee colonies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0197589
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197589
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Simon N. Wood, 2001. "Minimizing Model Fitting Objectives That Contain Spurious Local Minima by Bootstrap Restarting," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 57(1), pages 240-244, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. William G Meikle & Vanessa Corby-Harris & Mark J Carroll & Milagra Weiss & Lucy A Snyder & Charlotte A D Meador & Eli Beren & Nicholas Brown, 2019. "Exposure to sublethal concentrations of methoxyfenozide disrupts honey bee colony activity and thermoregulation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Coby van Dooremalen & Frank van Langevelde, 2021. "Can Colony Size of Honeybees ( Apis mellifera ) Be Used as Predictor for Colony Losses Due to Varroa destructor during Winter?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-11, June.

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