Beekeeping Video Game to Identify Brood Stages

OK, so maybe its not technically a video game, but Reed Johnson at Ohio State has developed an online program called Broodmapper.com  to inspect brood frames. Citizen science is a term used describe similar projects, where the general public participates in the collection and analysis of data. Often the tasks include an educational component. In Broodmapper.com, you can learn or hone your skills in identifying eggs, brood age, diseased larvae, and other states you are likely to need to know when inspecting honey bee colonies.

Broodmapper screen shot
Here is a screen capture of the broodmapper.com ‘game’. You can see many cells marked as containing eggs, some marked as containg young larvae, and some marked as containing nectar.

Once you complete a tutorial that shows you how to do these things, you can then apply your skills to help in an actual research project investigating Miticide and Fungicide Interactions. It is now understood that many miticides and fungicides may have sub-lethal effects on honey bee colonies. Colonies may not die suddenly from these interactions, but may dwindle in comparison to unexposed colonies.  Studying this requires frequent and long term inspections of colonies. Dr. Johnson determined that to inspect colonies quickly in the field he needed to photograph the brood frames and determine their states later on. This is where you can participate and help in the effort.

To learn more see this page Broodmapper: Honey Bee Development and CitizenScience, or go straight to Broodmapper.com, create an account, and take the tutorial.

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