Honors College Thesis
 

Investigation and Implementation of a Liquid Feeding System for the Apis mellifera Honey bee under Laboratory Conditions

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/honors_college_theses/8s45qh095

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  • Studying honey bee behavior is a very important aspect of horticulture, especially in recent years as honey bee colonies face population decline, or colony collapse. While studying honey bees, researchers often keep honey bees in captivity, where it can be challenging to meet nutritional and hydration requirements using existing liquid feeding systems. Problems faced are leakage, crystallization, inadequate access to the liquid, inaccurate measurement of the liquid, and evaporation of the liquid. The OSU Honey Bee Lab used a Cheesecloth feeding system design that had many of these problems. This research attempted to help solve these problems by designing, building, and testing multiple feeding system designs. Designs were tested with sugar syrup and water. Through this research, it was found that the design that best solved the problems was a 15 mL High-Density polyethylene (HDPE) conical centrifuge tube cap with one large drilled hole and 35 or 40 size stainless steel mesh melted over the hole. Some designs’ performance was inconclusive in testing. These results show that while a satisfactory design was found, design performance may depend on the unknown interaction of multiple parameters such as hole size, hole roughness, mesh PMSF (lb./1000 ft2), and mesh Open Area %. Key Words: honey bee, feeding system, mesh, syringe
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