Hive

Problem Definition

As is known, the hive is a community that is very complex and is influenced by both internal and external factors. Also it is said, that hive is the only working communist and feminist community in the world. Therefore,the simulation was created to examine the influence of internal and external circumstances which influence the hive and the ecosystem in which they live. Especially I mean these factors:

• Number and distance of flowers to pollinate
• Number of workers and drones in the hive
• How duration of winter affect stocks of honey and colony survival
• How number of workers affect pollination of flowers and therefore the number of flowers in neighborhood.

The goal of this hive simulation is to understand the dependencies among factors listed above.

Method

Because of hive is multiagent system, NetLogo 5.0.3. is used for this simulation. NetLogo is powerful tool and is easy to learn. But it has also disadvantages. For example low speed and performance.

Only standard NetLogo procedures and features was used, except some turtle´s shapes, which was created by author.

To understand dependencies of individual factors, lot of data is needed. The results presented in this page comes from many repetitions of simulation with many different settings of model variables.

Model

As it was said, hive is very complex community and it´s behavior is also very complicated. Therefore the model is simplified to be able get reasonable results at reasonable time. That is why only important influences was chosen for this model.

Model behavior

This model tries to imitate behavior of the hive and surrounding areas with flowers, including changing of day and night and season.

Model environment

In the model the world is a square with edge dimension of 200 patches. Bees can move and flowers grow in a space of 200 * 150 patches. The rest 50 patches are reserved for sky and the Sun. The world doesn't wrap horizontally and vertically, so it is not possible to move from one edge to opposite one in one step.

Next sub-chapters describing behavior of individual parts of the model and we can distinguish these agents:

Sun

The Sun is not only visual element in the model, but it also determines behavior of the hive. When sun is beyond the horizon, bees are in the beehive. If Sun is on the sky, than new day begins and bees start to fly. How long the day is depends on how fast Sun goes across the sky.

Flowers

Flowers are important part of the model. They give food for bees. Every unpollinated flower is red and has variable nectar, which determines amount of nectar in the flower. It is defined as random number from 1 to 10. If variable nectar = 0, than flower is pollinated and it is ready to proliferate. There is also variable, which says how long does it take to new flowers grow. If this time is reached, than new flower grow in the von Neumann neighborhood of the pollinated flower which has orange color. Flowers also have variable age. (At the beginning of the simulation defined as random number from 0 to the value of variable, which defines how long flower lives before it dies.) If flower is not pollinated, than according to it´s age dies. (Dead flower has brown color.)

Beehive

Beehive is a "home" of bees, including workers, drones and queen. Also bee´s larvae (eggs in model)growing in the beehive. In the beehive are situated provisions of honey which is consumed by bees, when they are hungry. Bees are hidden here during the night and winter.

Beehive is randomly situated on the grass in the model or is in the middle of the grass(depending on settings).

Workers

Workers are female bees which are responsible for pollinating the flowers and collecting the nectar. They flies random direction in the morning to find flowers. If they find them, they pollinate it and collect nectar. Every worker can collect only 3 mg (milligrams) from each flower in a row, then she moves and looking for another flower. When worker has 30 mg of nectar, then she returns to the beehive. If the worker is very close to beehive and found the flower, then she tells other workers in the beehive direction of the flower. If worker didn't find anything, then it returns to the beehive.

Every worker consumes honey in the beehive. Worker consumes 4.5 mg of honey (nectar) a day (in the night and winter consumes a half). At the beginning of the simulation the value of energy is set for every worker to her maximum level. Maximum level of energy is defined as random-normal distribution, mean 22, standard deviation 2.5. This value describes how long can worker life without food. If variable energy = 0, then worker dies. If the value of energy is less than 5, than worker moves back to beehive for honey and if there is enough honey, then sets energy to the maximum energy.

Workers has also age, which is set at the beginning of the simulation. The value of age is defined for each worker as random number from 0 to 40. If age is > 50 in the summer or > 180 in the winter, worker dies.

Drones

Drones are male bees which are responsible for fertilization of the queen´s eggs. They flies random direction a when they meet queen, they fertilize her and than dies. If they don´t meet her, they flies back to the beehive and than flies random direction out of the beehive again.

In case of honey consumption it is the same as workers except their max energy value, which is defined as random normal distribution, mean 18, sd 2.5. Just as workers, drones has age set and defined same as workers, except winter. This is because drones are expelled from beehive and the community at the beginning of the winter.

Queen

Queen is a female bee which is sexually mature and it is mother of all bees in the hive. She is responsible for laying eggs. Queen flies random direction and oviposits every two days if she is in the beehive. She needs to mate with at last six drones to be fertilized. If she is fertilized then she oviposits "worker´s" eggs. If she is not, she oviposits "drone´s" eggs.

Just as workers and drones, queen has variable energy and max energy value is defined as random normal distribution, mean 100, sd 2. This difference is because of the fact that queen is preferred in honey allocation. That means, that queen is the last one who suffer from lack of honey in the beehive. Unlike workers and drones, queen lives much longer. In simulation it is 1000 days. There is always only one queen in the model.

eggs

There are two types of the eggs in the model. The first one is the "worker´s" egg and the second one is "drone´s egg". Their attributes are the same, but from "worker´s" eggs can hatch only workers and from drone´s ones only drones. Same as others, eggs has value of energy and maximum energy. Every egg has age. When it´s age reach 21 days, new worker/drone is hatched.

Result

Conclusion

Source Code