Monitoring brood in the honey bee winter cluster: the tracking of in-hive temperature as an alternative surveillance method

Abstract

Acquiring data on the winter brood stop is essential for composing strategies against brood parasites such as Tropilaelaps spp. One promising method for the large-scale monitoring of honey bee brood is the tracking of in-hive temperatures. The objectives of this study were to learn how to interpret in-hive temperature sensor data, to determine the best sensor set-up, and to test the method while using visual brood inspections for validation.