Sonic Digitizer as an Alternative Method to Assess Honey Bee (Hymenoptera:Apidae) Colony Dynamics

摘要

Areas of comb can be used to assess qualities of honey bee, Apis mellifeta L.,colony dynamics such as brood rearing, hoarding behavior, and food stores. Visual estimates, grid overlays, photography, and combination of these methods have been used to approximate measurements of comb areas. The development of portable computers with graphics and large data storage capabilities, along with the advent of the sonic digitizer, enables researchers to perform these measurements in the field. Scientific data manipulation software provides basis statistics and data transformations. The information can be stored in both graphic and numeric form. Digitizing data in the field improves accuracy and precision and reduces overall time spent in compiling and assessing data.