Modelling daily weight variation in honey bee hives
Fig 3
Graphical representation of the solution of our model.
(a) The weight as a function of time, W(t), in which the three linear regimes and the two transition regimes (shaded areas) are visible. (b-d) The three key elements that compose W(t): (b) the number of foragers inside the hive x(t) that converges to the constant value x*; (c) the amount of food F(t) inside the hive; and (d) the constant weight of the hive W0. In all four plots, five curves are shown for different model parameters θ = {Nmax, W0, a1, a2, d, m, ℓ = 18.74 g/h, w = 0.113 g/bee} that lead to the same effective parameters A, B, tc, α shown in panel (a). The values of the remaining parameters in numerical order for Nmax are W0[g] = 26230, 26173, 26117, 26060, 26004; a1[1/h] = 0.882, 0.914, 0.941, 0.964, 0.984; a2[1/h] = 2.329, 2.328, 2.328, 2.327, 2.327; d[1/h] = 0.469, 0.424, 0.387, 0.356, 0.330; and m[g/bee] = 0.038, 0.037, 0.036, 0.035, 0.034. The two grey spans highlight the time intervals of exponential decay and growth in x(t), respectively.