Honeybee Colony Survival with Magnetic Disc Intervention, Ontario 2023-2024

A field study of approximately 60 commercial beehives in Ontario, Canada, monitored from late summer 2023 to August 2024. The dataset, created by Magda Havas and shared on figshare, compares colony metrics between hives with and without a static neodymium magnetic disc placed beneath them. It includes measurements of overwinter survival, spring population strength, hygiene, and queen replacement rates.

Use Cases

• Modeling the effect of magnetic intervention on overwinter survival rates based on the described field trial.
• Analyzing correlations between magnetic treatment and colony hygiene or queen replacement metrics.
• Comparing spring population strength between treated and control hives as described in the study.
• Investigating the time-to-effect of magnetic intervention based on the described 8-week crossover period.

Strengths

• Data is from a controlled field study with approximately 60 hives across two commercial apiaries.
• Includes a partial crossover design in August 2024, allowing for within-study comparison.
• Results show statistically significant differences (p < 0.001) for key metrics like overwinter survival.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Direct electrical or biochemical measurements hypothesized to explain the effect were not performed.

Provenance

Source

Magda Havas via figshare.

Collection Method

Field study monitoring two commercial apiaries under identical management.

Time Range

Late summer 2023, spring 2024, and August 2024.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 09:06:32; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Ontario, Canada.