## 4 Discussion  
The RFID unit discussed in this study required intensive interdisciplinary collaboration and consultation with specialists and experts from various disparate fields of science. As there is no off-the-shelf RFID unit available to monitor honey bee behavior, this study can provide valuable help and tools for entomologists looking to include RFID technology in their research programs. As stated previously, RFID tracking technology for bees and other insects has been used in different studies [24, 25, 26, 27]. Nevertheless, few of these studies offered technical details related to their RFID methodology [4]. The main advantages of this unit are its small size, easy deployment to the study site, ability to monitor up to 32 honey bee colonies simultaneously, and operation with or without a power grid, which allows tracking bees in managed colonies located in remote and rural locations. When located off-grid, the power source remains the most critical component in such a unit. Our study proposed and tested two options for users to power their unit. Nonetheless, using a 12 V battery with an inverter remains significantly cheaper than purchasing an 1800 W generator. We successfully powered and operated this unit 24/7 (using option two described in Table 1) from July to September and did not experience any technical difficulties related to the power supply. Although this unit would not typically be used in autumn and winter, adequate and continuous battery charge remains to be tested. The data obtained from RFID bee tracking systems should be carefully revised and potential misreads discarded prior to data analysis. Misreading usually occurs when high numbers of bees per colony are monitored simultaneously and can be addressed using an adjusted algorithm [28]. Other instances of misreading or constant tag reading could happen when tagged-worker bees are stationary (e.g., defending, ventilating, and  
Figure 5: Description of the preliminary test conducted on queen bees. (**a**) shows honey bee queen labeled with a transponder, (**b**) five of the ten honey bee nuclei cabled to the RFID unit with tunnel and antennas at their entrance, (**c**) total time and duration of nuptial flights for each of the five virgin queens, (**d**) total number of flights and days in which they occurred. Data were collected from 20 August to 5 September 2021. The RFID unit recorded no activity related to the five other fully mated queens. cleaning the entrance) within the reading range of the antenna. These instances usually cause prolonged exposure of the transponder to the antenna, which is a concern that can be addressed by changing the software reading parameters to \"Single Read\" or \"Oppress Read\" for a desirable number of seconds, allowing tagged bees to vacate the scanning field of the antenna. Another challenge reported when using RFID tracking is the loss of the transponder or tag [29]. Transponders are usually fixed on the dorsal thorax segment of the bee using standard super glue. The use of small-size transponders and careful gluing on bees should help to minimize tag loss. The RFID method was revealed to be an effective technology to replace traditional observation of honey bee foraging activity, which is considered laborious and significantly less accurate. RFID tracking was used to identify sublethal effects of neonicotinoids on honey bee foraging behavior and homing [30]. Slightly larger tags (3 \(\times\) 3 \(\times\) 0.08) mm than those used in our study were used in a recent study that showed higher bee foraging activity prior to precipitation [31]. The transponder size can vary based on the size of the monitored insects and their lifting capacity. Nonetheless, the transponder size used in this study (2.5 \(\times\) 2.5 \(\times\) 0.4) mm was found to be optimal to monitor queen nuptial flights. All four surviving queens in our preliminary experiment were able to conduct their mating flights and successfully initiated oviposition indicating no burden or disability caused by these tags.