<A large colony would therefore contain about 10 pounds. I doubt that this same colony could have a field force of 10+ pounds. Even a colony of 60,000 bees would not contain more than about 15 lbs of bees in total. Just saying.>
PLB
I agree if I were weighing bees on June 22 in Montana. I'm referring to bees mid-summer in MT in a multi-story hive. Our June colonies are just starting to grow at that time, reach peak in July or early August, depending on the floral resources of the location.
I can't say that 15 lb mid-day drop was entirely bees, but the days bees stayed in, the drop was about 2 # max.
I also agree that estimates of 30-40,000 bees in a colony are commonly reported, but that's a normal, not a strong colony for my area - based on years of weighing bees, counting frames of bees, etc.
Always keep in mind variations by location as illustrated by honey yields - national average of honey harvest in many US areas is 40-50 #/colony take-off. For example, 40 # annual is typical of Utah and has been since the days of John Lovell, 1926. But, Utah beekeepers tend to drop 100 colonies at each location (beeyard, apiary).
In MT, our beekeepers generally stock multiples of 4 or 6 colonies - and colonies per apiary run from 24-30. State production average in a non-drought year is 100# + take-off, with at least 80-100 # left for over-wintering. But in good areas, 150# of take-off isn't unusual, and a couple of wetter parts of MT can yield 200# plus of honey (I know because I weighed all 48 colonies every month for 2 years) AND we've had colonies that weighed 500# total.
Our scales can weigh up to 1,000 # and are calibrated using standard weights. Despite the 1,000 # top end weight, the same scale is sensitive enough to weigh my Verizon Nokia cell phone - if I drop my phone on the hive, I get an appropriate change in weight as reported by the scale. Drift over 9 months (last fall to June of this year - so scale and hive were buried under snow, rained on, dried out by hot sun, etc.) was less than 1/2 pound.
So, we know that the scale is reasonably accurate and sensitive. And I guarantee that I've seen colonies in August packed with bees from top to bottom of a six story stack. Those aren't whimpy colonies. Just saying.
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