Hi all
Thinking back to when pounds and ounces were used to measure weight...
I remember 5,000 bees to the pound being quoted several times.
So I decided to look at what Wedmore said about it.
I hope the tabbing works out for you
WEIGHT OF WORKER BEES
Weight Number
in per Description
Milligrams Pound
110 4,100 on emergence
158 2,900 on 8th day
100 4,500 at 3 weeks old
80 5,700 as an old forager
95 4,800 Average age of field bee (empty)
133* 3,400 Average age of field bee (fully loaded)
60 7,600 weight of old starved bee
* This figure was probably taken during a good harvest. The general average
would be much below this.
14. The round figure of 5,000 bees per pound is clearly over-
estimated, especially as applied to bees in a swarm. Package bees vary
from about 2,600 to 4,500 per pound, averaging say 3,500. Probably
a figure of 3,500 to 4,000 is about right for a swarm, varying with the
strain and the number of hours the swarm has been out.
Quite why he measured in milligrams and stated figures per pound eludes me,
but using 3,500 to 4,000 from the above text, I would say that 4,000 was a
good bet for US bees, because they have high content of Italian genes (which
are small bodied) and a very low content of AMM genes (which are large
bodied) and as the reverse is true in UK I reckon a good figure for the UK
would be 3,500.
Having said all that I am not about to hunt out a set of old avoirdupois
weights in order to check.
Best Regards & 73s, Dave Cushman... G8MZY
Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website
Email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman & http://www.dave-cushman.net
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