###### Abstract  
The fields of electronics and information technology have witnessed rapid development during the last decades, providing significant technical support to the field of biological sciences. Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been used to automate the monitoring of animal location and behaviors in a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate species, including social insects such as ants and honey bees (_Apis mellifera_ L). This technology relies on electromagnetic fields to identify and track transponders attached to objects automatically. Implementing new technologies to serve research purposes could be time consuming and require technical expertise from entomologists and researchers. Herein, we present a detailed description on how to harness RFID technology to serve honey bee research effectively. We describe how to build and operate a 32-antenna RFID system used to monitor various honey bee behaviors such as foraging, robbing, and queen and drone mating, which can be used in other social insects as well. Preliminary data related to queen nuptial flights were obtained using this unit and presented in this study. Virgin queens labeled with \(\approx\)5 mg transponders performed multiple (one to four) nuptial/orientation flights a day (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) ranging from 8 to 145 s each. Contrary to virgin queens, no hive exit was recorded for mated queens. At full capacity, this unit can monitor up to 32 honey bee colonies concurrently and is self-sustained by a solar panel to work in remote areas. All materials, hardware, and software needed to build and operate this unit are detailed in this study, offering researchers and beekeepers a practical solution and a comprehensive source of information enabling the implementation of RFID technology in their research perspective. RFID; honey bee behavior; queen tracking; foraging activity; transponder +
Footnote †: journal: Applied System  
feeding behavior of female mites on honey bee pupae [10]. Harmony Radar technology was also used to track the activity of the Asian yellow-legged hornet (_Vespa vilutina_) and to characterize the impact of a honey bee microsporidian pathogen (_Nosema ceranae_) on honey bee flight and orientation in the field [11; 12; 13]. This technology consists of tracking a transponder fix on an insect, which can be exited and located by a stationary horizontally scanning radar system [14]. On social insects, many studies have used Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology as a tool to improve our understanding of their behavior and way of life [15; 16; 17]. This technology was particularly efficient to monitor wild bee species closely, more appropriately called non-_Apis_ bees [18; 19; 20], as these highly diverse bee species are poorly known, and close access to their nests is challenging. Bee behavioral studies not only provide fundamental comprehensions of bee sociality but are also critical to shed more light on the physiological response of these social insects to a wide range of biotic and abiotic stressors and how these stressors shape bee behavioral responses. For instance, RFID technology was used in colonies of bumblebees (_Bombus inpatients_) to study the effect of an endoparasite (Conopidae, Diptera) on their biological traits such as growth and mortality, as well as the parasite-ecology synergy on bumblebee foraging performance [21]. On honey bees (_Apis mellifera_ L.), RFID technology was used to study the effect of sub-lethal concentration of neonicotinoids facing honey bees in the field on their foraging performance and mortality [22]. It has also been used to observe queen mating behavior and monitor the frequency and duration of the nuptial flights [23]. Despite the recent increase in RFID techniques in honey bee research, a comprehensive description of an RFID unit adapted to the honey bees' particular characteristics is still missing. Currently, no \"off-the-shelf\" RFID unit exists or is commercially available to accommodate honey bee research.