How many bees in a winter cluster?

[Birdie Wife]

As the title suggests... do you know? Maybe it's as a proportion of the full colony. I'm sure someone sometime must have counted them...

Background: I'm writing a blog about some differences between bumblebees and honeybees and I couldn't find an answer from a quick search. Grateful for info! TIA.

 

[user 6228]

average winter colony in UK is 1.5Kg that equates to about 15,000 bees do you need the references to back it up?

 

[Birdie Wife]

average winter colony in UK is 1.5Kg that equates to about 15,000 bees do you need the references to back it up?

No, that should be fine derek - thanks!

 

[MartinL]

Background: I'm writing a blog about some differences between bumblebees and honeybees and I couldn't find an answer from a quick search. Grateful for info! TIA.

Prety simple really,

all of em!

I wasn't aware that bumbles clustered at all?

 

[Birdie Wife]

Prety simple really,

all of em!

I wasn't aware that bumbles clustered at all?

Nice

You're correct, bumblebees don't cluster, the Queens hibernate alone. I just like to put numbers in my blogs rather than some/most/all qualitative data.

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