>I've always seen great variation between colonies, from close to 40 to above 50. More populous colonies also seem to send out foragers sooner than the sparse ones.
True. It also depends on the race: our native black bees fly at lower temperatures - in one extreme case I saw a queen return from a mating flight at 5ºC (41ºF) and must say that I was surprised that there were drones on the wing!
Best wishes
Peter
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W
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