> The assessment of the colonies’ status with respect to the number of adult workers, number of brood, pollen, honey storage, and health so far requires visual inspections by beekeepers. Particularly if swarming needs to be prevented, beekeepers have to inspect the colonies’ status regularly. First attempts to reduce the required labour were made by Woods (1959), who introduced the “Apidictor”. Based on the analysis of sounds produced in a hive, the “Apidictor” attempted to predict swarming. In recent years many efforts have been undertaken to establish more advanced monitoring systems for apiaries that might reduce the amount of labour required (reviewed by Kridi et al. 2016; Gil-Lebrero et al. 2017; Ramsey et al. 2017, 2018; Debauche et al. 2018; Howard et al. 2018; Seritan et al. 2018; Bencsik and Newton 2019; Henry et al. 2019; Hunter et al. 2019).
> In a recent study, it was stated that the stop signal and drumming induced by DAVs [Dorsoventral Abdominal Vibrations] can be measured automatically (Ramsey et al. 2017). However, it became apparent that the detection of substrate-borne vibrational signals is entirely restricted to the immediate vicinity of sensors. Unless many sensors are used, these measurements cover only a very restricted area of the nest. It is doubtful that such limited measurements are suitable to reliably predict the colonies’ state. To establish a longterm automated recording and analysis of vibrational signals may, combined with other colony parameters, become a sensitive tool for non-invasive and remote assessment of colony state. However, further studies are required to make reliable predictions that actually help beekeepers.
Kirchner, W. H., Hager, F. A., & Krausa, K. (2022). Vibrational Behaviour in Honeybees. In Biotremology: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution (pp. 387-410). Springer, Cham.
see also
Ramsey M, Bencsik M, Newton MI (2017) Long-term trends in the honeybee ‘whooping signal’ revealed by automated detection. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0171162. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0171162
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