In order to gain insight into the problem of colony collapse and into the impact of honey bees as key players in their local ecosystem more generally, the suspected causes of colony collapse are often studied in isolation. Efforts to understand the causes underlying honey bee decline are impeded by complex colony dynamics, along with the numerous interactions bees have with their local ecosystem these factors create a system with multiple entwined variables, often confounding causality. The recent problem of colony collapse has led to a surge in research efforts into honey bee colony dynamics and the stresses they face. Here, we demonstrate the use of the model by exploring the effects of sub-lethal pesticide exposure on the flight behaviour of foragers.ĭue to the importance of honey bees, both ecologically and agriculturally, and because of their decreasing populations on a global scale, honey bees have been the focus of a large body of research. To this end, the simulation package is written in open source, object-oriented code (C++) and can be easily modified by the user. The ability to study interactions among pesticides, climate, biodiversity and pathogens in this predictive framework should prove useful to a wide range of researchers studying honey bee populations. Moreover, pathogen populations (in particular, Nosema apis, Nosema cerenae and Varroa mites) have been included in the model and may be introduced at any time or location. We track explicitly the intake of pesticides in individual bees and their ability to metabolize these toxins, such that the impact of sub-lethal doses of pesticides can be explored. The simulation tracks bees of different ages and castes, food stores within the colony, pollen and nectar sources and the spatial position of individual foragers outside the hive. We present a model and associated simulation package (to capture the natural dynamics of a honey bee colony in a spatially-explicit landscape, with temporally-variable, weather-dependent parameters.
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