Classifying the Biological Status of Honeybee Workers Using Gas Sensors

Abstract

Honeybee workers have a specific smell depending on the age of workers and the biological status of the colony. Laboratory tests were carried out at the Department of Apiculture at UWM Olsztyn, using gas sensors installed in two twin prototype multi-sensor detectors. The study aimed to compare the responses of sensors to the odor of old worker bees (3–6 weeks old), young ones (0–1 days old), and those from long-term queenless colonies. From the experimental colonies, 10 samples of 100 workers were taken for each group and placed successively in the research chambers for the duration of the study. Old workers came from outer nest combs, young workers from hatching out brood in an incubator, and laying worker bees from long-term queenless colonies from brood combs (with laying worker bee’s eggs, humped brood, and drones). Each probe was measured for 10 min, and then immediately for another 10 min ambient air was given to regenerate sensors. The results were analyzed using 10 different classifiers. Research has shown that the devices can distinguish between the biological status of bees. The effectiveness of distinguishing between classes, determined by the parameters of accuracy balanced and true positive rate, of 0.763 and 0.742 in the case of the best euclidean.1nn classifier, may be satisfactory in the context of practical beekeeping. Depending on the environment accompanying the tested objects (a type of insert in the test chamber), the introduction of other classifiers as well as baseline correction methods may be considered, while the selection of the appropriate classifier for the task may be of great importance for the effectiveness of the classification.

The Identification of Bee Comb Cell Contents Using Semiconductor Gas Sensors

“…Our research introduces concepts that are entirely original and unprecedented in their character, offering a fresh perspective in the field. As for the usage of semiconductor gas sensors in beekeeping, thus far, the possibility of detecting dangerous bee and brood diseases with them has been analyzed [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 40 ], as well as the effectiveness in recognizing the status of worker bees [ 25 ] or honey varieties [ 41 ]. For the first time, it has been investigated whether the gas sensor matrix is able to recognize the contents of honey bee comb cells.…”

“…Air quality measurements using semiconductor gas sensors are already being carried out in many industries [ 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Excellent results were obtained in the detection of bee and brood diseases and the status of worker bees [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. A particular application is FIGARO’s TGS series of sensors.…”

In-Field Detection of American Foulbrood (AFB) by Electric Nose Using Classical Classification Techniques and Sequential Neural Networks

“…It must be remembered that these are field conditions. The situation is different in the case of laboratory tests, where the array of the same sensors already gave stable readings in the first and only measurement (10 min of measurement session) [ 12 , 34 , 35 ].…”

Padrões Bioacústicos como Identificadores Precisos da Presença de Rainha em Colmeias de Abelhas Melíferas

“…Atenc ¸ão especial tem sido dada ao monitoramento de variáveis físicas da colmeia, e.g. temperatura e umidade [Braga et al 2021], peso [Silva et al 2020, gases [Wilk et al 2021], áudio [Rodrigues et al 2021].…”