Abstract
This paper proposes a new mathematical model to evaluate the effects of artificial feeding on bee colony population dynamics. The proposed model is based on a classical framework and contains differential equations that describe the changes in the number of hive bees, forager bees, and brood cells, as a function of amounts of natural and artificial food. The model includes the following elements to characterize the artificial feeding scenario: a function to model the preference of the bees for natural food over artificial food; parameters to quantify the quality and palatability of artificial diets; a function to account for the efficiency of the foragers in gathering food under different environmental conditions; and a function to represent different approaches used by the beekeeper to feed the hive with artificial food. Simulated results are presented to illustrate the main characteristics of the model and its behavior under different scenarios. The model results are validated with experimental data from the literature involving four different artificial diets. A good match between simulated and experimental results was achieved.
Highlights
Beekeeping is an activity dependent on environmental resources
In the presence of sufficient natural food, only small amounts of artificial food will be consumed. This is a representation of the natural behavior observed in experimental tests, in which bees prefer natural food, as long as it is available [25]. This behavior clarifies the importance of the function T(f): without this function, the model would not be able to emulate the preference of bees for natural food over artificial food
This paper has proposed a new model to simulate the influence of artificial feeding on bee colony population dynamics
Summary
Beekeeping is an activity dependent on environmental resources. Bees collect nectar from flowers and take it to honeycombs, where it is converted to honey, which is the energetic food resource. Which is based on the formula from [17] but adds the term βT(f)fa, which accounts for how the availability of stored artificial food reduces the recruitment rate of hive bees. Since part of the consumed food may be artificial, we define a new function U(Á), 0 U(Á) 1, to represent the portion of the total food needed daily by the colony that is obtained by natural sources.
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