Honey bee colony monitoring with implemented decision support system

• Published in: Engineering for rural development no. 14/2015; pp. 446 - 451
• Main Authors: Kviesis, A., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia), Zacepins, A., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia), Riders, G., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Jelgava (Latvia) Latvia University of Agriculture 2015
• Subjects: AGRICULTURA DE PRECISION; AGRICULTURE DE PRECISION; ANALISIS DE DATOS; ANALYSE DE DONNEES; APICULTURA; APICULTURE; APIS MELLIFERA; BEE COLONIES; CAPTEUR; COLECCION DE DATOS; COLLECTE DE DONNEES; COLONIA DE ABEJAS; COLONIE D'ABEILLES; COSTOS; COSTS; COUT; DATA ANALYSIS; DATA COLLECTION; DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS; EXPERIMENTACION; EXPERIMENTATION; LATVIA; LETONIA; LETTONIE; MONITORING; PRECISION AGRICULTURE; SENSORES; SENSORS; SISTEMAS DE APOYO A LAS DECISIONES; SURVEILLANCE; SYSTEME D'AIDE A LA DECISION; TEMPERATURA; TEMPERATURE; VIGILANCIA
• ISSN: 1691-5976; 1691-5976

In this article honey bee monitoring with implemented decision support system for wintering period is described. A 1-wire temperature sensor system for honey bee monitoring was developed, where data can be demonstrated on a developed computer application and on a Web page. To analyze and interpret the gathered data, a decision support system was implemented in the previously mentioned computer application. The decision support system analyzes data when requested by the user. The system consists of three defined rules, such as detection of significant temperature variations between different honey bee colonies in the same apiary, possibility of brood rearing detection, possibility of colony death detection. The analyzed data showed that in some colonies the average temperature was significantly different than the average temperature of all colonies, meaning that attention to these colonies needs to be paid. After those hives were inspected, it was concluded that the temperature difference was due to their movement closer to the sensor. The described system is developed within the ITAPIC (Application of Information Technologies in Precision Apiculture) project.