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🐝 Comparing Honey Bee Types

An interactive 3D trait-radar and hive-cloud simulation comparing Carniolan, Italian, Buckfast and Native Dark honey bee strains on temperament, winter hardiness, honey yield, swarm control and UK adaptation.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DModerate60 FPS

A 3D trait radar and a live hive-entrance bee cloud compare Carniolan, Italian, Buckfast and Native Dark honey bees on temperament, winter hardiness, honey yield, swarm control and UK native fit.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Each breed's five-trait profile is plotted as a filled polygon on a radar chart; the hive scene's bee activity and calmness respond to the selected breed's temperament and winter hardiness under a disturbance and season control.

🎮 How to Use

Pick a breed from the dropdown, tick "Overlay all breeds" to compare shapes directly, then drag the disturbance slider and season control to see how each strain's bees react near the hive entrance.

💡 Did You Know?

The Buckfast bee was developed at Buckfast Abbey in Devon after acarine mite outbreaks nearly wiped out native British colonies in the early 20th century, blending native survivors with Italian stock for calm, productive UK-adapted bees.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D trait-radar chart overlays Carniolan, Italian, Buckfast and Native Dark bee scores across five breeding criteria, paired with a Three.js instanced bee cloud around a hive entrance whose density and agitation respond live to the selected breed's temperament, a disturbance slider and a season control.

bee breedscarniolan beebuckfast beenative black beequeen selectionapiculture uk

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install