How many bee loads to fill a frame

[Davidwd]

I was watching my hive today, it was extremely busy and i estimated at about 150 bees coming in per minute. About 20% carrying pollen.

I wondered if there is a way of estimating how many cells they would fill in a day at that rate?

 

[Arfermo]

Why?

 

[Davidwd]

It will help me estimate if i need to feed as we have 4 days of rain forcast

 

[beesleybees]

Why?

if no-one asked questions, no one would learn anything!!

that goes for everything, not just beekeeping

what boring world we would live in if everyone said, why do you want to know that?? it just does!!!

I hope the OP gets an answer, i too am intrigued

 

[Arfermo]

if no-one asked questions, no one would learn anything!!

that goes for everything, not just beekeeping

what boring world we would live in if everyone said, why do you want to know that?? it just does!!!

I hope the OP gets an answer, i too am intrigued

A quick lift of the lid or even a quick heft would tell him if he needs to feed. Computing it the way he seems to want is a bit ott imho.

 

[Finman]

.
It is impossible to see on entrance what they bring to hive and what they consume.

Keep allways 2 store frames that bees live one week even if they cannot come out.

Open the cover and look do they have food.

 

[FreeFall]

A quick lift of the lid or even a quick heft would tell him if he needs to feed. Computing it the way he seems to want is a bit ott imho.

I'd be interested to know the answer myself, for simply that reason, I'd find it interesting to know. Your profile doesn't say how many hives you have but I'm guessing it's more than one (which the OP has, as do I at the moment). Some of us just find these little creatures very interesting, as an escape from the 'day job' perhaps.

If your 'day job' is inspecting hives, then sure - you aren't going to want to say hello to every queen or marvel at the pure white cappings.

Some of us do.

 

[Poly Hive]

One full bee nectar load is = to the volume of a drop as in a drop from an eye dropper. However she can consume up to near half on her return trip. Plus roughly two thirds is evaporated off as water vapour.

As a guide to needing feeding it is not practical.

http://www.lasi.group.shef.ac.uk/aps323/HowBeesMakeHoney.pdf

1lb of honey = 50,000 bee stomach loads.

A stores comb is roughly 4-5 lbs so.....

All of which took five mins on Google.

PH

 

[tonybloke]

the question is unanswerable!

if you don't know the following, how can you expect to get an answer?

1, how many bees in the hive?
2, how much are they consuming to raise brood?
3, how many brood cells are occupied and being fed?
4,how much nectar is being brought in?
5,what is the water / sugar ratio of the nectar?
6, how much is being used to produce wax?

the list of variables is huge........................

 

[Arfermo]

If your 'day job' is inspecting hives, then sure - you aren't going to want to say hello to every queen or marvel at the pure white cappings. Some of us do.

Retired 19 years ago so no job thank goodness bar enjoying life for as long as I can !!!

 

[Davidwd]

I was just interested as there is so much activity at the hive and only having had my first hive for 10 days now. I just got to thinking with all those trips back and forth I wondered how many trips it took to fill a cell with either pollen or honey?

Thank you for all the replies

 

[DanBee]

the question is unanswerable!

Bit cynical - if you assume that the comb is built, and that the honey is surplus to immediate requirements, then it's relatively straightforward to work out how many trips required for an average nectar strength of, say, 15-20%, and an average stomach content size of 40ug nectar, to fill a 3lb shallow or 5lb deep national frame of honey.

Work on an average of 8lb honey to 1lb wax if you want to estimate the cost of building / capping the comb.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I was watching my hive today, it was extremely busy and i estimated at about 150 bees coming in per minute. About 20% carrying pollen.

I wondered if there is a way of estimating how many cells they would fill in a day at that rate?

I think you'd need to know how tightly packed the pollen is on each bee, and then if (and by how much) it is further compressed when it's packed into a cell.

You would also need to know the potential volume of each cell. Dave Cushman's site has some information that might help. http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/celltest.html#celltestfond

Pollen is protein. According to this site http://www.honeybee.com.au/Library/pollen/nutrition.html it is ... the bees' main source of protein, and is required for muscle growth in brood and young adult bees so, although it might be an interesting calculation it won't really help you work out if, and how much, fondant, sugar or syrup you might need to feed your bees during bad weather or a dearth.