Thanks all,

For clarification, the size of the colony and the height of the stack of
honey supers are two different things.  When one pulls the supers, the
number of boxes left required to hold the bees would be a good indication
of the size of the actual colony.

A colony of 60,000 bees, which is about the largest reliably measured, at
1800 bees to cover a frame, would require more than 3 deeps to fit all the
bees when crowded.

Here in Calif, I regularly have colonies that large.

So please allow me to ask the question again more specifically.  Do
colonies in the North ever grow to the point that you couldn't squeeze all
the bees into 3 deeps?

Thanks,

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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