Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee Health
Colony monitoring devices used to track and assess the health status of honey bees are becoming more widely available and used by both beekeepers and researchers. These devices monitor parameters relevant to colony health at frequent intervals, often approximating real time. The fine-scale record of...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Agriculture |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/1/2 |
| _version_ | 1818616301671677952 |
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| author | Matthew Smart Clint Otto Robert Cornman Deborah Iwanowicz |
| author_facet | Matthew Smart Clint Otto Robert Cornman Deborah Iwanowicz |
| author_sort | Matthew Smart |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Colony monitoring devices used to track and assess the health status of honey bees are becoming more widely available and used by both beekeepers and researchers. These devices monitor parameters relevant to colony health at frequent intervals, often approximating real time. The fine-scale record of hive condition can be further related to static or dynamic features of the landscape, such as weather, climate, colony density, land use, pesticide use, vegetation class, and forage quality. In this study, we fit commercial honey bee colonies in two apiaries with pollen traps and digital scales to monitor floral resource use, pollen quality, and honey production. One apiary was situated in low-intensity agriculture; the other in high-intensity agriculture. Pollen traps were open for 72 h every two weeks while scales recorded weight every 15 min throughout the growing season. From collected pollen, we determined forage quantity per day, species identity using DNA sequencing, pesticide residues, amino acid content, and total protein content. From scales, we determined the accumulated hive weight change over the growing season, relating to honey production and final colony weight going into winter. Hive scales may also be used to identify the occurrence of environmental pollen and nectar dearth, and track phenological changes in plant communities. We provide comparisons of device-derived data between two apiaries over the growing season and discuss the potential for employing apiary monitoring devices to infer colony health in the context of divergent agricultural land use conditions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T16:47:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-801c3adb00ef43f29f9858fc4970267d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2077-0472 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T16:47:38Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Agriculture |
| spelling | doaj.art-801c3adb00ef43f29f9858fc4970267d2022-12-21T22:24:07ZengMDPI AGAgriculture2077-04722017-12-0181210.3390/agriculture8010002agriculture8010002Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee HealthMatthew Smart0Clint Otto1Robert Cornman2Deborah Iwanowicz3U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, ND 58401, USAU.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Jamestown, ND 58401, USAU.S. Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USAU.S. Geological Survey Leetown Science Center, Kearneysville, WV 25430, USAColony monitoring devices used to track and assess the health status of honey bees are becoming more widely available and used by both beekeepers and researchers. These devices monitor parameters relevant to colony health at frequent intervals, often approximating real time. The fine-scale record of hive condition can be further related to static or dynamic features of the landscape, such as weather, climate, colony density, land use, pesticide use, vegetation class, and forage quality. In this study, we fit commercial honey bee colonies in two apiaries with pollen traps and digital scales to monitor floral resource use, pollen quality, and honey production. One apiary was situated in low-intensity agriculture; the other in high-intensity agriculture. Pollen traps were open for 72 h every two weeks while scales recorded weight every 15 min throughout the growing season. From collected pollen, we determined forage quantity per day, species identity using DNA sequencing, pesticide residues, amino acid content, and total protein content. From scales, we determined the accumulated hive weight change over the growing season, relating to honey production and final colony weight going into winter. Hive scales may also be used to identify the occurrence of environmental pollen and nectar dearth, and track phenological changes in plant communities. We provide comparisons of device-derived data between two apiaries over the growing season and discuss the potential for employing apiary monitoring devices to infer colony health in the context of divergent agricultural land use conditions.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/1/2honey beeagriculturepollen traphive scaleNorthern Great PlainsgrasslandApis mellifera |
| spellingShingle | Matthew Smart Clint Otto Robert Cornman Deborah Iwanowicz Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee Health Agriculture honey bee agriculture pollen trap hive scale Northern Great Plains grassland Apis mellifera |
| title | Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee Health |
| title_full | Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee Health |
| title_fullStr | Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee Health |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee Health |
| title_short | Using Colony Monitoring Devices to Evaluate the Impacts of Land Use and Nutritional Value of Forage on Honey Bee Health |
| title_sort | using colony monitoring devices to evaluate the impacts of land use and nutritional value of forage on honey bee health |
| topic | honey bee agriculture pollen trap hive scale Northern Great Plains grassland Apis mellifera |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/1/2 |
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