Method of measuring the food gathering of a colony of social flying insects and device for implementing the method

摘要

The invention relates to a method of measuring the food gathering of a colony of social flying insects, in particular bumble bees or bees, - in which the flying insects leaving a nest are conducted individually through a lockable first chamber (31), the flying insects are conducted individually from the first chamber (31) into a first compartment (34) of a weighing chamber and their outgoing weight is determined there, the flying insects are conducted into a lockable second chamber (35) and released from there into the open for food gathering, - in which the flying insects returning into the nest from food gathering are conducted individually through a lockable third chamber (31'), the flying insects are conducted individually from the third chamber (31') into a second compartment (34') of the weighing chamber and their incoming weight is determined there, and the flying insects are conducted into the nest through a lockable fourth chamber (35'), and - in which the food gathering is determined by working out the weight difference between a plurality of incoming weights and outgoing weights of individual flying insects. The invention also relates to a device for implementing the method. <IMAGE>