How Does a Bee Detect Her Colony Size by Michael Smith

A lecture given by Michael Smith at the 2018 National Honey Show entitled "How Does a Bee Detect Her Colony Size?" Sponsored by Surrey Beekeepers Association. The National Honey Show also gratefully acknowledge the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers for their support. Michael Smith is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Collective Behaviour at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology/University of Konstanz. His research focuses on movement patterns in honey bee colonies, and how individual bees detect the developmental state of their group. Michael first began beekeeping in 2005, while attending The United World College of the Atlantic, in St. Donats, Wales. He continued beekeeping during his undergraduate degree at Princeton, while also conducting honey bee research at Wellesley College with Heather Mattila. In 2017, Michael completed his PhD in Tom Seeley’s lab at Cornell University, where he studied growth, development, and reproductive investments in honey bee colonies.