Hello again everyone, this has been a very buzzy week for me (which I'm
eager to tell you about!). But first I'd like to clarify some things about my
future blog posts. From here on out, I am going to start doing two different
types of blog posts. The first kind will be updates on my SRP, and the second
kind will be general information about bees and background on my project.
However, today's post is simply an update.
Before I talk about what I did this week at the lab, I want to discuss the purpose and the methods of the experiment that we intend to carry out. Using CO2 sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, and weight sensors, we intend to determine the effects of different miticides on bee colony homeostasis. We will be testing two miticides: thymol (a substance extracted from thyme) and Apivar, a miticide commonly used by beekeepers because it kills Varroa mites without leaving significant residues in honey or wax. Thymol is often applied as a gel, while Apivar comes embedded in cardboard or plastic strips. I have six hives at my disposal for this experiment. Two of the hives will be given the Thymol treatment, two will be given Apivar, and two will be given nothing at all (they will act as our control group).
Now, about what I did this week. In preparation for Wednesday (when we installed our CO2 and temperature and humidity sensors in our hives) I went to the lab on Monday to familiarize myself with the CO2 sensors. This was also Dr. Meikle's first time working extensively with these CO2 sensors, so he had a sensors specialist talk to us about how they work. We are using Nondispersive Infared (NDIR) CO2 sensors, which are spectroscopic sensors that detect CO2 in a gaseous environment by its characteristic absorption. The key components of NDIR CO2 sensors are an infrared source, a light tube, an interference filter, and an infrared detector. In the sensors that we are using, gas diffuses into the light tube through a membrane and the electronics determine how much CO2 is present by measuring how much absorption of CO2's characteristic wavelength of light there is. We have at our disposal four 5000ppm CO2 sensors and two 2000ppm sensors. After learning about how these sensors work, we set them up in the lab and tested them. Here is a picture of what we did:
Before I talk about what I did this week at the lab, I want to discuss the purpose and the methods of the experiment that we intend to carry out. Using CO2 sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, and weight sensors, we intend to determine the effects of different miticides on bee colony homeostasis. We will be testing two miticides: thymol (a substance extracted from thyme) and Apivar, a miticide commonly used by beekeepers because it kills Varroa mites without leaving significant residues in honey or wax. Thymol is often applied as a gel, while Apivar comes embedded in cardboard or plastic strips. I have six hives at my disposal for this experiment. Two of the hives will be given the Thymol treatment, two will be given Apivar, and two will be given nothing at all (they will act as our control group).
Now, about what I did this week. In preparation for Wednesday (when we installed our CO2 and temperature and humidity sensors in our hives) I went to the lab on Monday to familiarize myself with the CO2 sensors. This was also Dr. Meikle's first time working extensively with these CO2 sensors, so he had a sensors specialist talk to us about how they work. We are using Nondispersive Infared (NDIR) CO2 sensors, which are spectroscopic sensors that detect CO2 in a gaseous environment by its characteristic absorption. The key components of NDIR CO2 sensors are an infrared source, a light tube, an interference filter, and an infrared detector. In the sensors that we are using, gas diffuses into the light tube through a membrane and the electronics determine how much CO2 is present by measuring how much absorption of CO2's characteristic wavelength of light there is. We have at our disposal four 5000ppm CO2 sensors and two 2000ppm sensors. After learning about how these sensors work, we set them up in the lab and tested them. Here is a picture of what we did:
 | |
| This is our CO2 sensor setup. The gray tube is a 5000ppm CO2 sensor. |
On Wednesday, we got into our bee suits and installed the
CO2 and temperature and humidity sensors (I will go into more extensive detail
on our setup in my next post). We also installed a gridded board in the bottom
of the hive that will catch falling Varroa mites. By counting the number of
mites in each square and dividing by how many days the board has been in place,
we can determine mite fall per day and, as a result, mite concentration. Expect more updates soon- I will be going to the CHRBC (Carl Hayden Bee Research Center) twice next week.
