Continuous monitoring the Queen loss of honey bee colonies.

The queen bee is the core member of a bee colony, and her loss will pose a great threat to the survival of the colony that may cause colony collapse. However, the process by which queen bee loss affects the internal social state of the bee colony remains unclear. In this paper, we used a multi-sensors system to continually monitor colonies with queen loss and regularly checked their biological status. Our results show that the queen loss initially caused a rapid decrease in brood rearing and changed the foraging strategy of the colony, leading to an increase in food storage. Also the population decline is difficult to reverse in a short time, even if the queen is naturally replaced. This study emphasises the impact of queen bee loss on the operation of the bee colony social system, and elucidates the interconnectedness of the bee colony social system. • Bee colony status was monitored using biology and multiple sensors. • Queen bee loss alters internal states as brooding, foraging, hive weight. • A new-born queen bee cannot improve the internal colony state in the short term. • A single indicator change can trigger chain reaction in the bee colony system. • Monitoring hive weight changes can effectively identify queen bee loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]