Ummm...why doesn't someone just collect some bees, stick them in the
freezer, and then count how many dead bees fit in a cup?  Should give a
rough estimate of live bee count.  Why do you want to know it so badly
anyway?

A real live bee count would vary depending on how active the bees, or if
they decide to stay in the cup.

For counting varroa mites, I shake what I estimate to be a U.S. 1/3 - 1/2
cup into a plastic bag (just a visual estimate, we don't measure the bees,
and they are confinded in the zip-lock bag), then freeze this and count
varroa and bees.  Last summer, this gave us between 138 and 382 bees.

Didn't someone guess near that to win the prize?  I think he wins the prize!

R. R. James

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