Figure 1. Elements of honey bee social dynamics considered by our model.

Eggs laid by the queen are reared as brood that eclose three weeks later as adult bees. Adult bees work in the hive initially before becoming foragers. Our model considers the death rate of adult bees within the hive to be negligible, but forager death rate is a parameter varied in our simulations. We assume the amount of brood reared is influenced by the size of the colony (number of hive and forager bees) and that the rate at which bees transition from hive bees to forager bees is influenced by the number of foragers to represent the effect of social inhibition.