A task: you buy a 2.0 kg swarm. How many bees you have there

.calculating is not easy job. There are many weights said about bees.

Second task: How much langstroth frames that swarm needs?

Count the legs and divide by 6.

a useful approximation is a bee weighs 0.1 gms which makes 10^4 bees per kg.
but its a bit like saying g is 10ms^-2
or c is 3x10^8ms^-1

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More bets?

Depends how big the bees are - they come in all sizes - a bit like Boo Bees

Finman said:

.calculating is not easy job. There are many weights said about bees.

Second task: How much langstroth frames that swarm needs?

Click to expand...

It depends on the density of bees on the comb. If they are clustered densely, they would need less space than if they were spread out.
If I had to guess, I'd say 5-6 combs should be enough. 2Kg is still just a nuc.

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That I can say that 2 kg swarm occupy 9 frame langstroth box and draw all foundations.

Compare with package bees.
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Are the bees well fed or starving? How many mites to subtract from the equation?

jenkinsbrynmair said:

Depends how big the bees are - they come in all sizes - a bit like Boo Bees

Click to expand...

Mostly bees are 0.1 -0.1 g.
Some are 0.08

But to weigh a bee is difficult, because they have allways more less honey in their honey belly.
Even when a new emerge, it has got honey from nurser bees via tiny hole.

I bought a digital balance and bees full of honey weigh 0.17 g.

Approx... 15,700.

Okay then.

When swarm leaves, all bees have stomach full of honey. Weigh of 10 bees is about 1.5-1.7 g.

The number of bees / kg is then 6000-6700.

If the bee's weigh is 0.1 g and with full load it is 0.15 g, we can say that a bee can carry a load 50% out of its own weigh.

Or... Load is 1/3 out of a flying bee with full liad.

If a bee has foraged at the distance of 2 km, it has quite small load when it returns to home.
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Finman said:

Okay then.

When swarm leaves, all bees have stomach full of honey. Weigh of 10 bees is about 1.5-1.7 g.

The number of bees / kg is then 6000-6700.

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Now that depends upon the density of the honey.
If the bees had all swarmed off then shirley the weight would be zero
Very hypotheatical if you ask me... sounds like one of the BBKA module questions!


Nos da

icanhopit said:

Now that depends upon the density of the honey.
If the bees had all swarmed off then shirley the weight would be zero
Very hypotheatical if you ask me... sounds like one of the BBKA module questions!


Nos da

Click to expand...

That happens even in better families

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We can say too, that 2 kg swarm has 0.7 kg honey when it leaves the hive.
It is not much when when we think that to draw combs to langstroth size hive without foundations needs 15 kg honey, and 7 kg with foundations.
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It is a difference too, if you put the swarm onto ready combs or into foundationless hive.
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The Czech, Doctor Linhart, whose work of swarm control by drone-breeding we discussed last week, (see "Opinion on this" thread) says:

• the mean weight of a hived worker bee is 0.1gm
• the weight of a swarm-forming worker is 0.15gm
• the weight of a drone is 0.23gm
• drones are bred at a rate that is 4.5 times lower than the females in a normal colony - my calcs suggest that workers are 82% of a swarm and 18% are drones - CVB

so if Y is the number of bees, the equation is
2000 = (82/100)xYx0.15 +(18/100)xYx0.23
becomes
2000 = 0.1644Y
so
Y = 12,165 bees

I claim my prize from the phantom Fin.

CVB

charlievictorbravo said:

[*]the weight of a drone is 0.23gm
]my calcs suggest that workers are 82% of a swarm and 18% are drones.

CVB

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What I have seen drone weights from internet, it is 170 mg, as much as virgin


My swarms have 18 drones. Not 18%. That much is a catastrophe..it means that out of 10 brood frame hive 2 frames are mere drones. Never.

From which sleave you have drawn that 18% Mr Phantom?

I have looked many sources when I have tried to find out the weight of the bees.

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charlievictorbravo said:

The Czech, Doctor Linhart, whose work of swarm control by drone-breeding we discussed last week, (see "Opinion on this" thread) says:

• the mean weight of a hived worker bee is 0.1gm
• the weight of a swarm-forming worker is 0.15gm
• the weight of a drone is 0.23gm
• drones are bred at a rate that is 4.5 times lower than the females in a normal colony - my calcs suggest that workers are 82% of a swarm and 18% are drones - CVB

so if Y is the number of bees, the equation is
2000 = (82/100)xYx0.15 +(18/100)xYx0.23
becomes
2000 = 0.1644Y
so
Y = 12,165 bees

I claim my prize from the phantom Fin.

CVB

Click to expand...

Is that 0.15 g take off weight or landing weight? After all fuel is consumed in flight.

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I have measured myself the bees which are full of honey on combs. But I like big size bees.

I bought an accurate digital balance just for weighing bees. It costed 100€. That made me find out the sizes of bees because it revieled out that internet may present what ever numbers.

Phamtom assumptions against practical measuring. Sorry.

Here's the link to Dr Linhart's paper - look at page 539.- http://thermosolarhive.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Biologia-Antiswarming-behaviour.pdf

I don't know how many drones go with the swarm - I used Linhart's figure for the proportion of general drone population in a hive in the absence of anything definitive that I could find.

CVB