However, it is not clear how the individual thermoregulation of workers is used to regulate the temperature of the nest or hive as a whole. It is questions such as these which we can use a multi agent simulation to answer. By specifying the behaviour of an individual honey bee as an agent process we can simulate how the bee agents interact. This simulation can, hopefully, then be used to examine the various theories of nest temperature regulation. Regulation of Body Temperature Worker honey bees generate heat in order to warm up prior to flight, maintain elevated thoracic body temperature during foraging and regulate nest temperature.
All heat is generated by flight muscles.
When grounded, bees can regulate their T thx by shivering two pairs of fibrillar muscles in the thorax. When in the hive, individual bees can easily achieve a T thx of choice due to the convective heating to which they are subjected. This T thx drops to no more than 15C above the T air . At T air of less than 15C, workers are unable to sustain the 30C T thx required for vigourous flight. At lower values of T air , workers must periodically stop and use shivering to increase T thx to levels at which they can fly again.