Data from: Temperature as an early warning signal of honeybee colony failure
Data files
Sep 22, 2025 version files 54.04 MB
-
California-temperature-data.csv
32.04 MB
-
California2016-allbrood.csv
3.44 KB
-
Code.Rmd
56.16 KB
-
README.md
4.43 KB
-
Sydney2018-allbrood.csv
1.27 KB
-
Sydney2018-temperature-data.csv
17.40 MB
-
Sydney2020-brood.csv
1.70 KB
-
Sydney2020-temperature-data.csv
4.54 MB
Abstract
This dataset consists of time-series of temperature, survival, and brood count data of Apis mellifera honey bee colonies for the development of early warning signals of colony death. Data were obtained from hives in California in 2016-2017 or Sydney in 2018 or 2020. Hives were opened multiple times to evaluation brood levels and survival.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2547d7x46
Description of the data and file structure
Colony temperature, survival and capped brood amount data were collected to develop early warning signals of honeybee colony failure.
Files and variables
File: Code.Rmd
Description: An Rmarkdown code used to open, process, analyse and plot the data.
File: Sydney2018-allbrood.csv
Description: Capped brood data for Sydney in 2018
Variables
- date: date of brood measurement (date)
- hive: unique colony identifier (categorical)
- brood: amount of capped brood cells (numeric), "NA" indicates colonies removed from the experiment following death (brood counting not applicable) while live colonies with no brood have the value "0"
File: Sydney2020-brood.csv
Description: Capped brood data for Sydney in 2020
Variables
- eval: evaluation number (numeric)
- date: date of brood measurement (date)
- hive: unique colony identifier (categorical)
- nBroodTotal: amount of capped brood cells (numeric), "NA" indicates colonies removed from the experiment following death (brood counting not applicable) while live colonies with no brood have the value "0"
File: Sydney2020-temperature-data.csv
Description: Brood nest temperature (middle of the hive) measured with an iButton sensor, and colony survival data from hives in Sydney in 2020
Variables
- hive: unique colony identifier (categorical)
- date_time: date and time of measurements (datetime)
- day: date of measurement (date)
- dead.status: colony status (alive, dead) (categorical)
- dead.status.fixed: status recoded as alive, low brood, dead (categorical)
- Value: temperature in °C (numeric)
File: California-temperature-data.csv
Description: Brood nest temperature (middle of the hive) measured with an iButton sensor, and colony survival data from hives in California in 2016-2017
Variables
- dateTime: date and time of measurements (datetime)
- day: date of measurement (date)
- hive: unique colony identifier (categorical)
- value: temperature in °C (numeric). Empty cells are present from the dates sensors were removed from dead colonies on the first evaluation where the death of these colonies was detected.
- dead.status: colony status (alive, low brood, dead) (categorical)
File: California2016-allbrood.csv
Description: Capped brood data from hives in California in 2016-2017
Variables
- hive: unique colony identifier (categorical)
- date: date of brood measurement (date)
- brood: amount of capped brood cells (numeric). In January, brood counts were unavailable: due to the cold weather, brood could not be counted, hence all brood counts are "NA". At other dates, "NA" only indicates colonies removed from the experiment following death (brood counting not applicable) while live colonies with no brood have the value "0"
File: Sydney2018-temperature-data.csv
Description: Brood nest temperature (middle of the hive) measured with an iButton sensor, and colony survival data from hives in Sydney in 2018
Variables
- DateTime: date and time of measurements (datetime)
- Value: temperature in °C (numeric)
- hive: unique colony identifier (categorical)
- ibutton: unique sensor identifier (categorical)
- type: sensor location ("hive") (categorical)
- day: date of measurement (date)
- dead.status: colony status (alive, low brood, dead) (categorical)
- queen.status: queen status ("queenright" or "queenless") (categorical)
Code/software
The script "Code.Rmd" was developed in R version 4.4.2 (2024-10-31 ucrt); Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 Running under: Windows 11 x64 (build 22631) with packages: dplyr v1.1.4; tidyr v1.3.1; cowplot v1.1.3; ggplot2 v3.5.1; lubridate v1.9.3; segmented v2.1.1 .
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of some of the data:
- Meikle, W. G., Weiss, M., & Beren, E. (2020). Landscape factors influencing honey bee colony behavior in Southern California commercial apiaries. Scientific reports, 10(1), 5013.
- Colin, T., Forster, C. C., Westacott, J., Wu, X., Meikle, W. G., & Barron, A. B. (2021). Effects of late miticide treatments on foraging and colony productivity of European honey bees (Apis mellifera). Apidologie, 52(2), 474-492.
Temperature was recorded every 15 min using sensors with a 0.0625 °C precision (iButton Thermochron model DS1922). Every two months, sensors were removed for inspection, data download, and replacement, occasionally creating gaps in the temperature records. Because accessing sensors required opening the hive and thus some level of colony disturbance, records for the first 2 h after sensor installation were removed.
During hive evaluations, the survival status of colonies was noted with colonies considered dead when 300 bees or less were left in a hive. In addition, bees were brushed off the frames, frames were then photographed using Nikon or Canon DSLR cameras. Capped brood cells were counted from photos using ImageJ or Combcount.