Colony monitoring devices used to track and assess the health status of honey bees are\nbecoming more widely available and used by both beekeepers and researchers. These devices\nmonitor parameters relevant to colony health at frequent intervals, often approximating real\ntime. The fine-scale record of hive condition can be further related to static or dynamic features\nof the landscape, such as weather, climate, colony density, land use, pesticide use, vegetation\nclass, and forage quality. In this study, we fit commercial honey bee colonies in two apiaries\nwith pollen traps and digital scales to monitor floral resource use, pollen quality, and honey\nproduction. One apiary was situated in low-intensity agriculture; the other in high-intensity\nagriculture. Pollen traps were open for 72 h every two weeks while scales recorded weight every\n15 min throughout the growing season. From collected pollen, we determined forage quantity per\nday, species identity using DNA sequencing, pesticide residues, amino acid content, and total protein\ncontent. From scales, we determined the accumulated hive weight change over the growing season,\nrelating to honey production and final colony weight going into winter. Hive scales may also be used\nto identify the occurrence of environmental pollen and nectar dearth, and track phenological changes\nin plant communities. We provide comparisons of device-derived data between two apiaries over the\ngrowing season and discuss the potential for employing apiary monitoring devices to infer colony\nhealth in the context of divergent agricultural land use conditions
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