Repeatability of hoarding behavior of honeybee workers (Apis mellifera carnica Polm) in laboratory test cages

Abstract - The hoarding behavior of groups of 50 honeybee workers in test cages was measured under balanced circumstances in an incubator at 28°C and 60-70% relative humidity. The repeatability of the results was estimated using the maximum likelihood method and varied according to the series. This made the test less reliable. Both methods were tested on syrup hoarded from 1-12 d using 6-9-day-old bees. The methods gave results with a changeable level of repeatability. Therefore, testing hoarding behavior of worker bee groups cannot replace the monitoring of bee colonies throughout the whole season.